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SPEECHES, 



CONGRESSIONAL AND POLITICAL, 



AND 



OTHER WRITINGS 



OF 



EX-GOVERNOR AARON V. BROWN. 



OF TENNESSEE. 



* t * 



« • « • • • ■ 



■ • - . 



COLLECTED AND ARRANGED BY THE EDITORS OP THE UNION AND AMERICAN 



NASHVILLE, TENN.: 
JOHN Li MAULING AKD COMFAKiT, 

1S54. 






L- . ■ 



• 












/ 



^23i 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



V 



PAGE 

Biographical notice, from Livingston's Memoirs of Eminent Ameri- 
cans, - i 

PART I. 

CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

Speech in reply to Mr. Bell, on the Bill to Secure the Freedom of 

Elections, May 19th and 20th, 1810, 10 

Speech on the Bill to Charter the Fiscal Bank of the United States, 

August 4th, 1841, 37 

Speech on remitting the fine on General Jackson, January 8th, 1844, 56 
Speech on the correspondence of Mr. Webster with the British Min- 
ister, in re'ation to the Surrender of Alexander McLeod, July 9th 

and 10th, 1841, 07 

Speech on the Tariff, June, 1842, 81 

Speech on Abolition Petitions, January, 1844, .... 106 
Speech on the Right of Members Elected by General Ticket to their 

Seats, February, 1844, -120 

Speecli in reply to Mr. Adams on the Bill Establishing a Territorial 

Government for Oregon, January 27th, 1845, ... . 138 

Second reply to Mr. Adams on the same Bill, February 4th, - - 147 

jch on the New Jersey Contested Election, March 17th. 1840, - 154 



IV. CONTEXTS. 

PART II. 



POLITICAL SPEECHES AND OTHER ADDRESSES. 



I ■ 






PAGE 



Speech, when a candidate for the office of Governor, delivered at 
Athens, East Tennessee, June 21st, 1845, ... - 185 

Speech, when a candidate for the same office in 1847, - 204 

Speech at Jonesboro', as one of the Democratic Electors for the 
State at large, in the Presidential election between General Cass 
and General Taylor, August 24th, 1848, 235 

Speech in the Presidential election between General Pierce and 

General Scott, at Columbia, August 6th, 1852, - - 254 

Speech at Charleston, East Tennessee, in same election, October, 

1852, 281 

Lecture on the Progress of the United States and the Slavery Ques- 
tion, at Odd Fellows' Hall, Nashville, in 1850, - - - - 292 

Letter to the Nashville Union, on the subject of the approaching 

Southern Convention, - -- -----321 

Letter to the Nashville Union, after the adjournment of the first 

session of the Southern Convention, - - - - - 331 

Speech at the second session of the Southern Convention, - - 307 

The Tennessee Platform, written by Governor Brown, reported by 
Mr. Nicholson to the Delegates, and having been adopted, reported 
by their Chairman, General Pillow, to the Southern Convention, - 319 

Address to the Law Class of the University at Lebanon, February 

15th, 1853, 346 






CONTENTS. v - 

PART III. 

MESSAGES, REPORTS, AND OTHER MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



PAGE 



365 



Inaugural Address on his installation as Governor of Tennessee, in 

1845, 

Message to the General Assembly in 1845, - - 375 

Proclamation for Volunteers in 1846, 388 

Address to the First Regiment, transferring it to the United States, 394 

Message of 1847, - 423 

Resolutions of 1827, introduced into the Tennessee Legislature, in 
relation to the defeat of General Jackson, in the election of 1824, 427 

Speech in support of the same, 435 

Address of the Giles County Committee (prepared by Gov. Brown,) 
in the Presidential election of 1836, between Mr. Van Buren, Gen. 

Harrison and Judge White, 443 

Address to his constituents in 1842, reviewing the measures of the 
Whig party at the called session of 1841, and the regular session 

of 1842, 

Reply to Mr. Benton, on the True Origin of the Movement for the 

Annexation of Texas, 493 

Reply to Mr. Adams, complaining of the publication of General 
Jackson's letter in favor of the annexation of Texas, - - - 499 

The same subject continued, -517 

Speech in the Legislature of Tennessee against abolishing the Cir- 
cuit and Supreme Courts, ^24 

Speech to his constituents, on his return from the called session of the 

Legislature of 1832, 633 

Letter to the New Orleans Railroad Convention, - 544 

Report in the Legislature of Tennessee on Free Persons of Color, - 549 
Report against Capital Punishments, 557 



466 



PREFACE. 



The object of the present publication, is to collect, into 
one volume, the principal speeches and writings of Gov. 
Brown, for better preservation by his friends, and for more 
easy access by all who, at any time, may wish to make refer- 
ence to them. 

They cover a space of many years, and embrace all the 
controverted questions of public policy, State and national, 
from the first canvass of General Jackson for the Presidency, 
to the present time. Their publication, we believe, will pre- 
sent the most condensed and accurate record of the party 
struggles of this State, any where to be met with, and must, 
therefore, prove an acceptable work to the public at large. 
To the younger politicians of both parties, who desire to be 
familiar with the past, as well as the present political history 
of the State, it must be invaluable. 

THE EDITORS. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH- 



Aaron V. Brown, late Governor of Tennessee, was born on the 15th of 
August, 1795, in the county of Brunswick, Virginia. His father, the Rev. 
Aaron Brown., enlisted, when not yet of lawful age, for three years in the Rev- 
olutionary army. He was in the battle of Trenton, and participated in that 
ever-memorable march through the Jerseys, where the course of the American 
army was known to the enemy by the blood of its bare-footed soldiery. He 
was also one of the sufferers in the encampment, at Valley Forge, during the 
severe winter of 1777-8, where disease, and famine, and nakedness, so often 
drew tears from the illustrious Washington. At the close of his term of ser- 
vice, he returned to the county of Brunswick, where he continued to reside for 
nearly forty years in the midst of those who had witnessed his early and patri- 
otic career, respected and beloved by all as a faithful and useful minister of the 
gospel, of the Methodist persuasion ; an upright civil magistrate, a staunch re- 
publican of the old Jefferson school, and an honest man. The subject of this 
memoir was the issue of his second marriage, with Elizabeth Melton, (corrup- 
ted from Milton,) of Northampton county, in the State of North Carolina. 

Except in the simplest elements, Gov. Brown was educated in the last-men- 
tioned State. He was sent when very young to Westrayville Academy, in the 
county of Nash, in order to be placed under the care of Mr. John Bobbitt, 
one of the best scholars and teachers of the time. After continuing here for 
two years, he was transferred, in the year 1812, to the University of North 
Carolina, at Chapel Hill. He graduated in this institution, in 1814, in a large 
class, of which Senator Mangum and ex-Governor Mauley, of North Carolina 
were also members. The duty was assigned to him by the faculty, and confirm- 
ed by the trustees, of delivering the valedictory oration on commencement day. 
and the service was performed in a manner which produced the most striking 
impression on the large assembly then in attendance. The collegiate career of 
but few young men is marked by incidents of sufficient importance to be recited 
in a notice like this. Industry in preparing for and punctuality in attending at 
the hour of recitation, as well as the most cheerful conformity to the rules 
of the institution, were the most striking characteristics of his educational 
course. 

Having finished his educational course, Gov. Brown returned to his parents, 
who in the previous year, had removed to the county of Giles, in the State of 
Tennessee. About the beginning of the year 1815, he commenced the study 

2 



2 BIOGRAPHIC AL SKETCH. 

of law in the office of the late Judge Trimble, in the town of Nashville. 
With this gentleman he continued to read for two years, and now often refers 
to him as one of the most systematic, able and upright men he ever knew. 
Having obtained a license, he opened an office in Nashville, and commenced 
practice in that city with the most flattering prospects of success. About 
this time, however, Alfred M. Harris, who was engaged in a very extensive 
practice in nearly all the southern counties of Middle Tennessee, accepted a 
place on the bench, and solicited Gov. Brown to remove to the county of Giles 
and close up his extensive business for him. The opportunity was inviting, 
and that being the residence of his now aged parents, he determined to settle 
in that county. Taking charge at once of an extensive practice, both civil 
and criminal, including the land litigation, then an important and almost dis- 
tinctive branch of the profession, Gov. Brown found all the resources of his 
mind brought into immediate requisition. No time was to be lost in idleness 
—none to be devoted to pleasure. We remember that one of his maxims 
about this period was, " Always to be first at court, and never to leave it until 
the adjourning order was made. " Under such habits it was no matter of sur- 
prise to those who observed them, that there were but few causes of importance 
in the counties in which he practised, in which he was not engaged. 

In a few years after Gov. Brown commenced his career in Giles, the late 
President Polk commenced his in Columbia, in the adjoining county of Maury. 
They soon formed a partnership in their profession, thereby extending the 
field of their professional labors into more counties than they could have done 
without that arrangement. This partnership continued for several years, and 
until Mr. Polk engaged in his congressional career. Its dissolution brought 
no termination to that cordial friendship, personal and political, in which it had 
commenced, and which continued unabated until the death of the late lamented 
president. Gov. Brown continued engaged in his profession until the year 
1839, when, having been elected to Congress, he gave it up altogether. Much 
of the time in which he was in regular and full practice he was also a member of 
one branch or the other of the state legislature. This service being near home, 
and the counties he represented being those in which he practised, produced no 
material impediment to the progress of his professional business. But the 
case was different in the distant service in the Congress of the United States. 

Gov. Brown served as a senator, from the counties of Lincoln and Giles, at 
all the sessions of the legislature, regular and called, from 1821 to 1827, inclu- 
sive, except the session of 1825, when he was not a candidate. In the session 
of 1831 and 1832, he was the representative of the county of Giles in the other 
branch of the general assembly. His course was distinguished at all times, as 
a legislator for the state, for his determination to sustain an independent and 
able judiciary, and to build up an enlightened, liberal, aud impartial system of 
jurisprudence in the state ; and, we hazard nothing in saying, that, in searching 
through the statutes, one will find more laws of a general and permanent na- 
ture which emanated from him than from any one of the other public men of 
the state. He was longer in that service, and, by professional experience, may 
be presumed to have understood the defects of existing laws, and how to rem- 
edy them. Throughout his service in the legislature he evinced a strong dispo- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 3 

sition to diminish the number of offences which should be capitally punished. 
He did not propose or wish to abolish such punishments altogether, but only to 
reduce and limit them down to the smallest possible number of cases, consis- 
tent with the necessary self-defence of society against the aggressions of the 
lawless and abandoned. At the session of 1831-32, by the order of the judi- 
ciary committee, he prepared an elaborate and able report, which he submitted 
to the house, on the subject of capital punishments, which attracted great at- 
tention throughout the Union. 

Gov. Brown first became a candidate for Congress in 1839. At two for- 
mer elections the whigs had carried his district by majorities ranging from ele- 
ven to twelve hundred votes. His competitor, the Hon. E. J. Shields, had 
served in the two preceding Congresses. He was a gentleman of fine talents, 
and one of the most plausible and handsome debaters of his party. When the 
election came off, however, Gov. Brown was found not only to have overcome 
the large party majority against him, but to have overcome it by the immense 
majority of sixteen hundred and one votes. He was re-elected for the called 
session of Congress in 1841, without having any opposition. In 1843, the 
congressional district was altered so as greatly to diminish the democratic ma- 
jority by which Gov. Brown had been usually elected in the old district. This 
induced hopes that he might possibly be beaten in the new one, and all the regu- 
lar steps were taken to present a competitor in the person of the Hon. N. S 
Brown, now minister to Russia. The result, however, demonstrated that the. 
democracy of the new district, although not in so large a majority as in the 
old one, was nevertheless equally invincible. 

During the period of his congressional service, beginning in 1839 and ending 
in 1845, Gov. Brown seems to have been an active member, taking a part in 
nearly all the great questions which came up during that eventful portion of 
our political history. 

In May, 1840, he delivered a speech in reply to Mr. Bell, on the bill intro- 
duced by that gentleman, " to secure the freedom of elections. " He also made 
a speech on the celebrated New-Jersey case, having been a member of the 
committee which reported on the same. His speech on the burning of the 
Caroline, to be found in the Congressional Globe and appendix of 1841, was 
listened to by the house with profound attention and emotion, and is regarded by 
his friends as one of his ablest efforts in Congress. He was a member of the com- 
mittee which framed the tariff of 1842, and united with the minority in presen- 
ting a report against the principles and details of that measure. When the 
bill came up for discussion, Gov. Brown made a clear and powerful argument 
against it, opening the debate on the democratic side of the house. On the 
4th of August, 1841, he delivered a speech against the fiscal bank bill, which 
occupied so large a portion of public solicitude at that time. He made speeches 
in 1844 on the remission of the fine imposed on Gen. Jackson at New-Orleans. 
and against receiving and reporting on abolition petitions ; also, on the right 
of members elected by general ticket to their seats. 

It was in December, 1844, that Gov. Brown found it necessary to reply to 
sundry speeches of Mr. Adams, made in Massachusetts, in relation to the ne- 
gotiation of the Florida treaty. That reply having a direct reference to in- 



4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

cidents occurring in the congressional career of Gov. Brown, may be seen in 
the Daily Globe of December 14, 1844. A reply to Mr. Adams, on the Ore- 
gon bill, may be seen in the " Constitution " of January 29, 1845, and also a 
reply to another speech of Mr. Adams may be seen in the National Intelligencer 
of February 3, 18 15. 

On the 12th March, 1844, Gov. Brown, as chairman of the committee on 
territories, reported a bill to extend the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the 
several courts of the territory of Iowa over the territory of Oregon, and for 
other purposes. At the next session he reported another bill, organizing a 
territorial government for Oregon, which passed the house by a large majority, 
but was lost in the senate. 

Governor Brown's service in Congress ended with the commencement of 
President Polk's administration. He declined any office under the adminis- 
tration, and determined to return home and devote himself to the education of 
his children and the management of his own private affairs. Before he reached 
home, however, he was nominated by the democratic party as its candidate for 
governor. He met the news of this nomination at Pittsburg, and hesitated 
many days whether he would accept it or not. It conflicted with all his pur- 
poses to retire to private life to accept it, and opened a wide field of labor 
with but little prospect of success. Mr. Polk had failed twice for the same 
office, and could not carry the state in his presidential race, under all the zeal 
and excitement which it created. Besides this, Mr. Polk, in organizing his 
administration, and selecting his friends for different offices, had withdrawn 
from the state some of the most influential and powerful members of the party. 
He himself, was gone, Hon. Cave Johnson was gone, General Robert Arm- 
strong was gone, and several others whose weight had been always felt in state 
elections. Discouraging, however, as were the prospects, he finally determined 
to take the field against Col. Foster, a late senator, and one of the most popular 
and able men of the whig party. The discussion of the canvass turned chief! y 
on the tariff, the Texas and Oregon questions. 

In this canvass Gov. Brown was elected by a majority of one thousand five 
hundred or one thousand six hundred ; but in that of 1847, he was defeated by 
about half that number. For the last twelve years parties have been so nearly 
balanced in Tennessee that they have carried the state alternately against each 
other. The one last defeated brings to the polls at the next election a little 
more zeal and determination to retrieve their last misfortune, and are therefore 
very apt to prove triumphant. 

In the next year, 1848, Gov. Brown was a candidate for elector for the state 
at large, and canvassed it with great vigor, sustaining and even surpassing the 
:■ •pur.it ion which he had previously acquired. 

li, 1850, lu- wasa member of the Southern Convention held at Nashville. 
• !-• concurred fully in the resolutions passed at the first session of that body. 
but dissented from and protested against the address. At the second session of 
body in November following. Gov. Brown dissented altogether from the 
report submitted by the committee on resolutions; and, to exhibit his own 
views and those of the democracy of the state, prepared what 'was called and 
known as the Tennessee Platform, which, after being submitted to the delega- 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 5 

tion of the state and being approved by them, was by their order submitted by 
General Pillow to the convention. His whole course at both sessions was emi- 
nently conservative. At neither session, and at no stage of the slavery agita- 
tion, would he hear or think of a dissolution of the Union. He considered 
secession or a dissolution of the Union as no remedy for alleged grievances. — 
His favorite remedy against the whole series of aggressions was retaliation, as 
set forth in the Tennessee Platform. This he believed would soon exhibit to 
the North a greater power to injure them than they have had to injure the 
South ; and that, upon the simple principle of self-interest, both sections would 
presently cease the profitless controversy. 

The last public station which Gov. Brown has occupied was that of a dele- 
gate from the state at large in the late Baltimore convention. He introduced 
a very important resolution into that body, raising a committee of one from 
each state, to be appointed by the delegates from each state, to whom all reso- 
lutions relative to the principles or platform of the democratic party should be 
referred without debate. The importance of such a reference, without debate, 
was instantly perceived, and the resolution was adopted. He was unanimously 
appointed the chairman, and subsequently reported the platform, which has 
given such general satisfaction to his party in every portion of the United 
States. Gov. Brown has reason to be proud of the concurrence of his party 
in the platforms which, at different times, he has prepared for them. He was 
the author of the Tennessee platform in the Southern Convention. He pre- 
pared and presented the platform which was unanimously sanctioned in the 
convention at Nashville, on which the last gubernatorial battle was fought in 
Tennessee ; and that he had the honor assigned to him of reporting the national 
platform of democratic principles at the late convention was highly gratifying 
to his numerous friends. 



PART I- 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



SPEECH. 

On the Bill introduced by Mr. Bell, to Secure the Freedom of 
Elections, and to provide for the Faithful Administration of 
the Executive Patronage. House of Representatives, May 
19th and 20th, 1840. 



Mr. Brown having obtained the floor, said: 

He had listened with profound attention to the arguments of 
both his colleagues (Mr. Gentry and Mr. Bell,) in favor of this 
bill. He had done so, because he was desirous to know on 
what new statement of facts, or by what new process of rea- 
soning, this odious measure was now to be revived, and again 
pressed on the consideration of the public, after its signal fail- 
ure in the other end of the Capitol, and after that deep and 
decided reprobation of it which had been manifested in so 
many of the elections of this country. He was particularly 
anxious to discover whether misfortunes had not subdued, or 
at least chastened and softened down, some of those fierce and 
angry passions with which it was first advocated ; misfortunes 
that have fallen with peculiar force on those gentlemen's own 
personal and political friends. One of them (Mr. Bell,) a few 
weeks since, on the Cumberland road bill, gave us a most 
touching and eloquent description of those misfortunes. " He 
had seen (said he,) during the last summer, one friend after 
another dropping around him," until that proud and exulting 
majority by which he used to be surrounded on this floor from 
his own State, was now sadly reduced to a solitary unit. Look- 
ing at the other end of the Capitol, he might have told us that 
this mortality among his friends had been still greater; there, 
nothing was to be met with but one entire and perfect scene of 
desolation and defeat. Sir (said Mr. Brown,) I was anxious 



10 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



to observe that gentleman, when he should walk forth amid the 
ruins which this very bill had so mainly contributed to spread 
around him. I sincerely hoped that a contemplation of them 
might induce him to pause, and hesitate, and finally to abandon 
a measure which has heretofore produced such fatal results. 
But, sir, I am sorry to have to say, what many persons have 
observed before, that misfortunes, when they fail to reform, are 
almost sure to harden us ; and that even the dispensations of 
Providence, when not rightly improved, often superadd to our 
desperation, and plunge us still deeper into those vices and 
follies which they were intended to reform. 

I do not intend to apply such observations as these to the 
gentleman's course generally in this House. I have had fre- 
quent occasions not only to approve, but even to applaud, his 
calm and dignified mode of argument, during the disorders and 
tumults of the session. But, sir, I do mean to say, that, on 
this particular subject and its kindred ones, the gentleman 
never fails to lose his equanimity of temper, and to expose 
himself to the imputation of being governed more by the sug- 
gestions of passion, than guided by the dictates of reason, or 
the honest convictions of opinion. In much of that argument 
to which I wish now to reply, the gentleman seemed determined 
to have no compeer, in bold denunciation, in reckless invective, 
in wild and furious declamation. He seemed to imagine that 
he had driven Democracy into its last fortress, and that he was 
then making a bold and heroic charge, that was to demolish it 
for ever; or, to use his more sanguinary mode of expression, 
"he was striking a deadly blow at the life-blood of the party 
— that vile, corrupt, and infamous party which had so long 
ruled the destinies of this country." But, sir, the democratic 
party of this country was not let off with even such denuncia- 
tions as these. The gentleman (Mr. Bell,) became so far trans- 
ported as to compare it to that fabled monster, the Parisian vam- 
pire, that subsisted "by sucking the blood from the warm and beat- 
ing arteries of sleeping innocence." He described the end and 
destruction of that unnatural monster, and declared that he 
could see in that end the writhing and expiring contortions of 
the putrid and bloated carcass of democracy. Sir, I allude 
to these extravaganzas in the speech of my honorable colleague, 



ON TEE FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. 11 

in order to assure him that, in my humble judgment, great as 
are his powers of description and comparison, no one but him- 
self could see the slightest resemblance in this imaginary pic- 
ture. No. If you wish to see a resemblance of that Parisian 
monster, go find it in that proud and bloated aristocracy that 
has so long fed and fattened on the people of this country. 
Go find it in that system of associated wealth and exclusive 
privilege, in all its odious forms and varieties, which has been 
so long consuming our substance, and which is now beginning to 
crumble beneath its own magnitude, and to expire in the midst 
of its own rottenness and corruption. 

But, Mr. Speaker, I do not mean to content myself with 
making general observations like these against the present bill. 
It was introduced originally about three years ago, notoriously 
with the view of breaking down the Democratic party of the 
Union. But more especially was it intended to break down the 
Jackson or Democratic party in the State of Tennessee. It is 
now revived evidently for the same purpose, and was pressed 
upon this House in a tone of exultation and defiance which 
seemed at the time as though it was intended to provoke and chal- 
lenge a reply. Sir, I do not feel especially called on to repel 
attacks made against the Democratic party generally. I have 
no connexion with that party sufficiently notorious to justify me 
in presuming to become her champion. In my own State, 
however, that connexion is not quite so obscure and unknown. 
Although never aspiring to be one of her leaders, I have been 
for twenty years enrolled among her most zealous and faithful 
private soldiers. If I seem now for the moment to step out 
from her lines, and to take position above that of a mere pri- 
vate, it is only because those who used to bear her banner high 
and proudly amid the ranks of her enemies, have now not only 
surrendered that banner into the hands of her enemies, but 
are foremost in the onslaught and loudest in the battle-cry 
against her ! 

Let us now turn our attention to the provisions of this bill, 
the end and aim of which are avowed to be the destruction of 
the present Democratic party of the United States — that party 
which the gentleman was pleased to denounce in his speech on 



12 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



the Cumberland road bill to be "a standing fraud and imp 
tion on this country." 

I begin, sir, with its caption : " A bill to secure the freedom 
of elections." The elections of the people of the United States; 
all the elections, State and Federal, in all the States. The 
freedom of the elections of the United States ! Sir, you have 
but to state the proposition, in any company, in any State or 
county in this Union, to raise the smile of derision at its absur- 
dity. What! our elections not free enough in this country, 
where every man goes forward to the polls of his own accord, 
and casts his vote for whom he pleases ! goes in his own un- 
questioned and unquestionable majesty, asking no man's per- 
mission, and submitting to no limitation or restriction on his 
rights whatsoever ! How can you secure more freedom to us 
in elections than we now enjoy? How can you better secure, 
by law, that freedom which has been for more than fifty years 
secured to us by the Constitution ? Sir, it is like substituting 
statutory freedom for constitutional freedom. It is a good deal 
like what the advocates of this bill call " the purity of the 
elective franchise." Not that purity which is felt and preserved 
in the hearts of the honest citizens of this country ; not that 
virtue which, emanating from the heart, controls and governs 
the conduct of the people in administering their own govern- 
rrent in their own way, and for their own advantage and pros- 
perity ; but a sort of pretended legal purity ; a sort of hypocri- 
tical statutory virtue, which would yield to all sorts of political 
prostitutions on the first seducing bribe that might be laid in 
its way. Away with these forms and shadows ; if the people 
have not purity and virtue enough (as the high toned Federalists 
have always said they had not,) to govern themselves, you can 
never infuse those qualities into them by any process of the 
law. So much for the caption of this bill. I call your atten- 
tion now to the preamble or recitals of it. The first one of 
these recitals is the following : 

"Whereas, complaints are made that officers of the United States, or persons 
holding offices or employments under the authority of the same, other than the 
heads of the chief Executive Departments, or such officers as stand in the 
relation of constitutional advisers of the President, have been removed from 
office or dismissed from their employment upon political grounds, or for opin- 
ion's sake ; and whereas, such a practice is manifestly a violation of the 



ON THE FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. 13 

freedom of elections, an attack upon the public liberty, and a high misde- 



meanor: 



Here, sir, is a preamble, for which there is no proposed en- 
actment. It alleges certain conduct to be a high misdemeanor, 
yet proposes no penalty or punishment for the crime. Why, 
then, is it intruded here on this paper? Sir, I take it to be a 
perfect anomaly ; a thing unknown before in the history of le- 
gislation. I again demand to know why it is put down in the 
preamble, but not inserted in the enacting clause of the bill? 
I can draw but one conclusion from this strange fact, and that 
is, that the doctrine will do to p?-of ess but not to practice; to 
show off a speech upon, in order to excite popular feelings, but 
not to be established as one of the laws of the land, which it is 
known would have to be repealed so soon as its operation was 
seen and understood. I mean to examine this dangling su- 
pernumerary presently to show that the arguments in 
its favor are all fallacious, and the facts on which it purports to 
be based have no existence. I pass on to the second clause of 
the preamble, in the following words : 

" Whereas, complaints are also made that officers of the United States, or 
persons holding offices or employments under the authority of the same, are in 
the habit of intermeddling in elections, both State and Federal, otherwise than 
by giving their votes ; and whereas, such a practice is a violation of the free- 
dom of elections, and a gross abuse, which ought to be discountenanced by the 
appointing power, and prohibited by law." 

" Be it enacted, fyc, That, from and after the first day of July next, no officer, 
agent, or contractor, or other person holding an office or employment of trust 
or profit under the Constitution and laws of the United States, shall, by the 
contribution of money or other valuable thing, or by the use of the franking privi- 
lege, or the abuse of any other official privilege or function, or by threats and me- 
naces, or in an ij other manner, intermeddle with the election of any member or mem- 
bers of either House of Congress, or of the President or Vice President of the 
United States, or of the Governor or other officer of any State, or of any mem- 
ber or members of the Legislature of any State ; and every such officer or 
other person offending therein, shall beheld to he guilty of a high misdemeanor; 
and on conviction in any court of the United States, having jurisdiction thereof, 
shall pay a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars." 

This is the first section of the bill. According to its provis- 
ions, it will be seen that every grade of office and every variety 
of employment, under the United States, is included; also, 
that every thing and any thing said or done by them (except 



14 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

simply giving in their own votes) is to be taken as an intermed- 
dling in the election, and therefore to be punished by a fine 
not exceeding one thousand dollars. Now, sir, the application 
of this law to my own State is what I desire to bring before the 
House. There, sir, we have but few public officers of any grade, 
except our postmasters; we have some half dozen of these, on 
an average, in each county. Those at our county towns com- 
monly receive some two or three hundred dollars — rarely so 
much as five hundred. At the lesser villages and country 
stores, and at the neighborhood post-offices, it is quite frequent 
that the compensation does not amount to fifty or one hundred 
dollars. The office is in fact taken as an encumbrance, sub- 
mitted to for neighborhood convenience. Now, sir, all these 
postmasters, beside being officers of the United States, are citi- 
zens of the United States and of the State of Tennessee. 
They are deeply interested as citizens in the elections, both 
State and Federal; in the county elections of sheriffs, clerks, 
registers, &c; in the military elections of those officers, under 
whom they may have to serve in times of war. Yet, sir, it is 
proposed that a little fifty-dollar appointment as postmaster is 
to weigh down all his other interest as a citizen ; and, if he 
dare open his mouth in favor of one candidate or the other, he 
is to be instantly fined one thousand dollars. If called on to 
state a fact in his own knowledge, and perhaps in the knowl- 
edge of nobody else, which it is of the highest consequence to the 
country should be known— a fact which became known to him 
long before he was a postmaster — he must conceal that fact ; he 
must suppress and hide the truth from his countrymen, or pay 
down the penalty of one thousand dollars. Sir, is this my col- 
league's notions of the liberty, freedom and purity of our elec- 
tions? To speak out will affect the elections just as far as 
truth and character will and ought to affect them; to seal up 
his lips and suppress the truth will also affect the election, and 
put men into office who have no honesty in civil affairs, nor 
courage nor skill for the defence of the country in military ap- 
pointments. Now, sir, there are, on an average for each county 
in Tennessee, a half-dozen of our fellow-citizens who have the 
common rights of citizens ; they have the liberty of speech un- 
der all the guarantees of the Constitution ; they have, however, 



ON THE FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. 15 

undertaken to perform the duties of postmasters for their re- 
spective villages and neighborhoods ; and for this they are to 
be disfranchised, deprived of the liberty of speech, and com- 
pelled to stand silent and gagged in the midst of their fellow- 
citizens. Si?', is tJiis the freedom after which my colleague has 
been seeking under this bill ? If it is, God forbid that he 
should ever find it. For one, I repudiate and scorn such dis- 
tinctions in a free country. I repudiate and scorn a principle 
that sets one neighbor as a spy over another, and which ena- 
bles one man to propagate the vilest falsehood on another, be- 
cause his exposure can only be made by a postmaster, whose 
lips are hermetically sealed under the enormous penalty of 
one thousand dollars. Sir, this bill should be rather called a 
bill offering a premium to falsehood and defamation ; a bill to 
enslave a large portion of American freemen, because they are 
willing to undertake the performance of high and necessary 
public duties ; a bill to establish slavery in all our elections, by 
depriving one portion of the community of those rights and 
privileges allowed to all the rest. Sir, I shall show you pres- 
ently that those illustrious sages and patriots, who lived in the 
earlier and purer days of the Republic, rejected with scorn the 
very provisions of the bill now under consideration. Before I 
present their opinions on this branch of the subject, let me ad- 
vert to the arguments and doctrines of my honorable colleague 
in relation to the appointing -and removing power of the Exec- 
utive ; remember that the argument of the gentleman was 
made on the preamble of his bill, for which there was no cor- 
responding prohibitory or penal enactment. The argument 
then, like the preamble, might therefore be regarded as a mere 
abstraction, calculated to do no particular good nor harm any 
way. But I know my honorable colleague too well not to un- 
derstand that all the labor he has bestowed in ascertaining the 
opinion of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and other illustri- 
ous individuals, is not intended to be lost as a mere abstraction, 
accidently brought up in the course of this discussion. No, 
sir, that portion of the gentleman's argument will no doubt, in 
due season, make its appearance in the Whig papers of our 
State in blazing capitals. Well, sir, and what were the opin- 
ions of those illustrious men on the question of appointments 



16 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

to office, which necessarily includes also their opinions in rela- 
tion to removals wherever the right to remove has been 
conceded. 

I begin with Gen. Washington. In his letter to Mr. Picker- 
ing, dated September, 1795, he uses the following emphatic 
language : " I shall not, while I have the honor to administer 
the Government, bring a man into any office of consequence, 
knowingly, whose political tenets are adverse to the measures 
which the General Government are pursuing ; for this, in my 
opinion, would be a sort of political suicide : that it would 
embarrass its movements is most certain. But of two men 
equally well affected to the true interest of their country, of 
equal abilities, it is the part of prudence to give the preference 
to him against whom the least clamor can be excited." Ob- 
serve, sir, that in this opinion of Gen. Washington, he makes 
no reference to monarchist, or to persons opposed to that Rev- 
olution which secured to us our nationai independence. He 
goes beyond all this, and speaks of political tenets adverse to 
the measures of the General Government. This preamble 
recites that removals on political grounds are high misdemean- 
ors. Gen. Washington declares that a difference in political 
tenets is sufficient grounds for refusing appointments. This 
preamble recites that removals upon political grounds is an 
attack on public liberty. Gen. Washington declares, that 
appointments to office of such as hold political tenets adverse 
to the principles of his administration of the Government, 
would be a sort of political suicide. Sir, this brief parallel 
between this recital in the bill and the opinions of Gen. Wash- 
ington, directly on the point, ought for ever to seal the fate 
of this proposition, so far as his distinguished authority is 
concerned. 

Immediately after the retirement of Gen. Washington, a 
contest sprung up for the succession between the elder Adams 
and Mr. Jefferson. The elements of party, before that time, 
had taken no definite form, or shape ; they were " rudis indi- 
gestaque moles.'''' In that contest, however, they became settled 
and distinct. The Federalists adhered to Mr. Adams ; the 
Republicans to Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Adams succeeded, and under 
him, the Federalists took possession of nearly every office of 



ON THE FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. 17 

his administration. In support of this fact, I refer to the 3d 
volume of Mr. Jefferson's works, page 470. In his celebrated 
New Haven letter he remarks, " It would have been to me a 
circumstance of great relief, had I found a moderate participa- 
tion of office in the hands of the majority ; I would gladly have 
left to time and accident to raise them to their just share ; but 
their total exclusion calls for prompter corrections." In his let- 
ter to Levi Lincoln, 3d volume, page 477, he remarks : " I had 
foreseen, years ago, that the first Republican President who 
should come into office after all the places in the Government 
had become exclusively occupied by Federalists, would have 
a dreadful operation to perform ; that the Republicans would 
consent to a continuation of every thing in Federal hands was 
not to be expected, because neither just nor politic. On him 
was then to devolve the office of an executioner — that of 
lopping off." 

I read these extracts now only to establish the fact of a 
total exclusion from office of the Republicans under the elder 
Adams's administration. Mr. Jefferson succeeded Mr. Adams. 
He was elected by the Republican party, and was its great 
apostle and founder. The lapse of years has only thrown a 
holier reverence around his name, and the political researches 
of the age have only given a brighter lustre to the principles 
of simplicity, economy, and equality, which he inculcated on 
his followers. Sir, it is that hallowed reverence for his name 
and his principles, which is yet cherished by a large proportion 
of the American people, that my colleague attempts now to 
make subservient to the destruction of his true friends and 
followers, and to strengthen the reviving energies of that old 
Federal party which he so signally vanquished in 1801. Yes, 
sir, strange as it may seem, the watchword of " Jefferson and 
liberty" is now being stolen by that very Federal party into 
whose ranks it once carried dismay and terror and destruction. 
What has any party to do with that watchword that holds in 
its rank and hugs to its bosom every anti-war Federalist on 
this floor, save one whose reformation dates back for twenty 
years, and whose devotion to Republican principles, during all 
that time, gives double assurance of the sincerity and thorough- 
ness of his reformation? What, I repeat, has an Essex-junto 

3 



18 CONGRESSIOIS'AI SPEECHES. 

man, and an anti-war Federalist, to do with the watchword of 
" Jefferson and liberty ?" It should blister the tongue that re- 
peats it, and crimson with shame all who concur in the pro- 
fanation. Sir, I have reached the point where I mean to give 
battle to my honorable colleague. " War to the knife," if he 
may choose to have it so. He maintains that Gen. Jackson's 
administration, and that of Mr. Van Buren, was not, andisnot, 
Jeffersonian in its character; or, in other words, that General 
Jackson and Mr. Van Buren are not "Democrats of the Jeffer- 
sonian school," because they have both outraged the principles 
of Mr. Jefferson in making appointments and removals from 
office : that they have proscribed men for opinion's sake, and 
ejected them from office against all the principles and practices 
of that great apostle of liberty. I not only deny these asser- 
tions, but I here undertake to disprove them altogether. 

Sir, I repeat, for greater perspicuity, that I now here under- 
take to show that both General Jackson's and Mr. Van Buren's 
administrations have been far less proscriptive than Mr. Jeffer- 
son's was. That great man's principles and practices, on the 
subject of appointments and removals, have been extensively 
misunderstood, because they have been misrepresented. I now 
refer to his own letters for proof of his true doctrine. 

He came into office on the 4th of March, 1801. All the 
offices of the Government were in the hands of the Federalists. 
That whole party, with a furious desperation, then, if not yet, 
unequalled in the annals of political warfare, resisted his elec- 
tion. The Republicans, however, taunted as they were as 
" greasy Democrats," derided, then as now, with being but as 
the rabble of the nation, bore him onward, until they placed 
him in the highest office in the gift of a free people. Intsalled 
into office, the question instantly arose, what course he would 
pursue in making appointments and removals from office. 
The whole Federal party had denounced him : would he now 
denounce them? The question was soon solved. He drew a 
distinction between Federalists. 1. The Federalist proper. 
2. Those who were called Federalists, but, in fact, were Repub- 
licans in principle, but who had been deceived and so made to 
act with the Federalists, while at heart, they were sound Re- 
publicans. The first class or Federalist proper, he rejected on 



ON THE PREEPOM OF ELECTIONS. 



19 



all occasions, turning them out, without exception and without 
ceremony. They were monarchist in principle, and were, there- 
fore, not proper agents under him, to carry out and perpetuate 
our Republican institutions. The second class (the Federal 
sect of Republicans, as he termed them) he permitted to par- 
ticipate in the offices, to a certain degree. To show that I have 
stated Mr. Jefferson's principles with entire and perfect ac- 
curacy, I will read from his letter to Mr. Lincoln, dated July 11, 
1801 : 

" Dear Sir : Your favor of the 15th came to hand on the 25th June, 
and conveyed a great deal of that information which I am anxious to re- 
ceive. The consolidation of our fellow-citizens in general, is the great 
object we ought to keep in view ; and that being once obtained, while we 
associate with us in affairs to a certain degree, the Federal sect of Repub- 
licans, we must strip of all the means of influence, the Essex-Junto and 
their associate monarchists in every part of the Union. The former differ 
from us only in the shades of power to be given to the Executive, being 
with us attached to Republican government. The latter wish to sap the 
republic by fraud, if they cannot destroy it by force, and to erect an English 
monarchy in its place ; some of them (as Mr. Adams) thinking its corrupt 
parts should be cleansed away, others (as Mr. Hamilton) thinking that 
would make it an impracticable machine. We are proceeding gradually in 
the regeneration of offices and introducing Republicans to some share in 
them. I do not know that it will be pushed farther than was settled before 
you went away, except as to Essex men. I must ask you to make out a list 
of those in office in yours, and the neighboring States, and to furnish me 
with it. There is a little of this spirit south of the Hudson. I under- 
stand that J****** is a very determined one, though in private life amia- 
ble and honorable ; but amiable monarchists are not safe subjects of Re- 
publican confidence. * * * * Our gradual reformations 
seem to produce good effects everywhere except in Connecticut. Their 
late session of the Legislature has been more intolerant than all others. 
We must meet them with equal intolerance. When they will give a share in 
the State offices, they shall be replaced in a share of the general offices. 
Till then we must follow their example." 

To what degree of participation in the offices, Mr. Jefferson 
admitted the second class of Federalist, may be seen in his let- 
ter of the 11th September, 1804, to Mr. Adams, in which he 
states, that they were admitted in fair proportion to their num- 
ber throughout the United States. Sir, I have now spread out 
before you, as on a map, the opinion and practices of Jeffer- 
son. They admit of no cavil and no misunderstanding. Now 



20 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

I demand to know when and where — in what year of his admin- 
istration or in what State of this Union — was General Jackson 
more intolerant than Mr. Jefferson? When did he say " We 
must meet them with equal intolerance ?" When did he say to 
those States who were most opposed to him, and who proscribed 
all his friends from office, " Until you will give a share in the 
State offices, we will follow your example ?" Never, never ! In 
my own State, there never was a day or an hour, during his ad- 
ministration, that General Jackson did not retain a greater 
number of his enemies in office than they would have borne to 
the number of anti-Jackson men in that State ; and yet, sir, we 
are told that General Jackson exceeded Mr. Jefferson in in- 
tolerance toward his enemies ! 

How does the same question now stand under the present 
Administration? Throughout the United States I do verily be- 
lieve that a majority of the office-holders have been and still are 
opposed to Mr. Van Buren. The very best estimates that have 
been made show the fact satisfactorily to every impartial mind. 
Does this look like proscription for opinion's sake? In my own 
state the fact has never been denied. In my own district, three 
out of the five postmasters of the county towns which I repre- 
sent, are thorough-going Whigs : active, zealous partisans. 
Some of them made heavy bets against the candidates of the 
Administration in the last elections. They attended public as- 
semblies out of their respective neighborhoods, and exerted all 
the influence they possessed in the election. Sir, let me assure 
my honorable colleague, that if his bill had passed before the 
last Tennessee elections, it would have cut right and left 
among his Whig friends in that State. Instead of dealing a 
deadly blow " on the life-blood of the party there," it would, 
have rebounded on the heads of his own friends. 

But it is often said, while Mr. Van Buren may have retained 
an equal number of his enemies in office, it has only been in 
the inferior ones, such as postmasters. Sir, a postmaster 
is very far from being an inferior appointment, so far as 
political results are to be attained. It is, in my judgment, 
to precisely such officers that General Washington allud- 
ed, when he declared he would appoint no person to any 
office of consequence, who was opposed to the principles 



ON THE FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. 21 

of his administration of the Government. It is through 
the postoffices that the press exerts its mighty power on 
the public mind. Every postmaster has it in his power, 
more or less, to paralize its exertion, by suppressing public 
documents ; or, if he dare not go so far as that, by laying them 
away upon some dusty shelf, and not handing them out to the 
people, until regularly and distinctly demanded. On the con- 
trary, a willing postmaster, favorable to the views of one party, 
may hail his fellow-citizens as they pass, and notify them that 
letters and packages have arrived at the office, addressed to 
them, and thus give them a wide and instantaneous circulation. 
If any man desires to be convinced of all this, let him but ex- 
amine and inquire at the postoffices after the adjournment of the 
present session, and see, at some of them, what heaps of let- 
ters and documents will remain piled up and undistributed for 
weeks and perhaps months after their arrival. I mean to look 
into this practice on my return, and no instance of partiality, 
such as I am commenting upon, shall go unrebuked. I assure 
my honorable colleague that even the biography of General 
Harrison, and the speeches of the gentleman from North 
Carolina (Mr. Stanly,) with which he has been deluging my 
district, shall be faithfully and impartially distributed. So far, 
therefore, as political results are concerned, your postmaster is 
an officer of the highest consequence; and it is, therefore, the 
best proof of liberality and toleration, that Mr. Van Buren and 
General Jackson could have given, to have let in their enemies 
into an equal if not greater participation in them. A liberality 
greater than Washington's, or Jefferson's, or any other Presi- 
dent's, unless it may be that of Mr. Monroe. 

Sir, I have not yet said anything in relation to the opinions 
of Mr. Madison. My honorable colleague was pleased to 
hold him up as a most perfect model of a great statesman, 
whose opinions should make a deep and lasting impression on 
his countrymen. I concur with him in his high eulogy on that 
illustrious patriot. Reared in Virginia, that mother of so many 
presidents, I was early taught, next to that of Washington, to 
revere the names of Madison and of Jefferson. Then, as now, I 
paid no homage to the opinions of one which was not paid 
equally to those of the other. Then, as now, I regarded them 



22 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

as two bright but equal luminaries, by whose light it will be 
safe, at all times, for their countrymen to walk. I now invite 
my honorable colleague to test bis bill by the lights of Mr. 
Madison's opinions. My honorable colleague has, no doubt, 
often consoled himself with the belief that he stood foremost 
of all others, in discovering this favorite remedy for preserving 
the purity, and securing the freedom, of elections ! But what 
mil be his surprise when I inform him that this same gag- 
remedy was discovered and proposed almost fifty years ago ; 
actually discovered and proposed almost fifty years ago ! Yes, 
sir, there were " Surgeon Crittendens" then as well as now ! 
But they were then, as now, pronounced mere empirics ; and 
their quack remedies, rejected and condemned, as they now 
are; rejected and condemned by Mr. Madison himself, that 
favorite authority to which the gentleman referred, and on 
which he so confidently relied. Dropping all figures of speech, 
I will now give you the recorded opinions of Mr. Madison. I 
read from Dunlap's Daily Advertiser of January 22, 1791 : 

"House of Representatives, January 22, 1791.— Excise bill was un- 
der discussion ; Mr. Jackson [I think of Georgia] moved to amend the bill 
by inserting the following : 

" And be it further enacted, That if any inspector or other officer, or per- 
son concerned in the collection of the revenue to be raised by this act, 
shall by any message or writing, or in any other manner, persuade or en- 
deavor to persuade, any elector to give, or dissuade, or endeavor to dissuade, 
any from giving his vote in the choice of any person to be a member of the 
House of Representatives, member of the Senate, or President of the 
United States, such inspector, or other person so offending, shall be for 
ever disabled from holding an office under this act, and shall be subject to a 
penalty of dollars." 

The vote was taken by ayes and noes — ayes 21, noes 37 : 
Mr. Madison and the celebrated republican, Wm. B. Giles, 
voting in the negative. Sir, here was the first gag bill ever 
offered in America. It was confined to those officers concerned 
in the collection of the revenue, and prohibited an interference 
only in the election of certain officers in the Federal Govern- 
ment, and yet it was rejected by a majority of nearly two to 
one, and by the votes of both Mr. Madison and Mr. Giles, 
two of the soundest republicans that ever lived in this country. 
Where now, let me ask, is the boasted authority of Mr, Madison 



ON THE FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. 



23 



In favor of this bill ? It stands recorded against it, on a bill 
much less objectionable than the one now proposed by my 
honorable colleague. 

[Mr. Bell, here rose and said that he wished it to be understood by the 
gentleman and the House, that he would have voted against the amend- 
ment himself.] 

Mr. Brown replied, then he apprehended he need not spend 
so mich time against the gentleman's bill, since he began to 
suspect that when it might come to the test he did not mean to 
vote for it himself. But how can the authority of Mr. Madi- 
son be invoked in favor of this bill, when it is known that it 
was his giant arm that dealt the blows that terminated the ex- 
istence of the alien and sedition laws : The great principle 
tl at pervaded the sedition law is the same as in this bill. That bill 
punished all those who should utter or publish anything defama- 
tory against our rulers ; this punishes all who shall intermeddle 
.n elections, either for or against our rulers ; not those only 
who are, but those who desire and offer to become our rulers ; 
not in a few of the higher departments, but in all of them, both 
State and federal, civil and military. That punished all offend- 
ing citizens, this only such as have superadded to the duties of 
citizenship those of official station. That was, indeed, less 
odious than the present bill. There the truth could be given 
in evidence in order to shield the citizen from punishment ; here 
truth has no advocate, and innocence finds no protection ; true 
or false, one single word, uttered in an election more favorable 
to one party than the other, shall subject the citizen to the 
enormous fine of one thousand dollars. He may have ex- 
pressed an opinion unfavorable to his own party ; he may have 
only insisted on the superior qualifications of one candidate 
over those of another ; or he may have only urged some gal- 
lant achievement in war or some noble self-denying deed in 
time of peace, as a consideration which entitled one party to 
the gratitude of the country over his competitor and rival. 
But I need not compare the relative merits of the present bill 
and the sedition law. The same spirit animates them both — 
a spirit that seeks to prostrate the dearest rights and privileges 
of the people — a spirit that alike destroys the freedom of the 
press and the liberty of speech — a spirit which Mr. Madison 



24 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

more than any other man then living contributed to subdue 
and to extirpate. Sir, I challenge casuistry itself to draw any 
sensible and clear distinction between the sedition law, Mr. 
Crittenden's bill, and the bill of my honorable colleague. They 
all contain the same principle, and that principle stands at 
open war with those great provisions of the Constitution which 
secure to the people the freedom of the press and the liberty 
of speech. 

From 1791 to 1837, with the exception of the alien and 
sedition laws, no attempt was made to force such legislation 
as this on the country. During that long period the people 
were contented that every citizen, whether a public officer or 
not, should enjoy his constitutional rights. That the assump- 
tion of office was but the assumption of new duties and liabil - 
ties for the public good, and should, therefore, be attended witl. 
no sacrifice or destruction of his personal rights as a free citi- 
zen of this great republic. During all this time, I maintain 
that our elections — all of them — both State and federal, were 
eminently free : free as they could be — free as the air we 
breathe and the water we drink. Everywhere through this 
wide country, on our election days, every American citizen 
walked forth to the ballot-box in his own personal majesty, 
paying no homage, save to himself and the laws and the Con- 
stitution. I appeal to the history of our elections in the great 
contest between the elder Adams and Mr. Jefferson ; to the no 
less excited canvass between the 2d Adams and Gen. Jackson ; 
to the contest between Mr. Clay, the now "great discarded," 
and General Jackson ; in fine to every one of our elections, to 
show that all of them, every where, have been as free as our 
glorious Constitution, and the proud, indomitable spirit of our 
countrymen could make them. 

What occasion, then, was there for the revival of this twice- 
repudiated doctrine of abridging the privileges of the people — 
repudiated by the wisest and best men that ever lived in any 
age or in any country? The first reason given, and the one 
most relied upon, is, that the President in office may use his 
patronage so as to give him an undue advantage over all com- 
petitors. This patronage consists in the power of making 
appointments under the express, or implied understanding, 



ON THE FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. 



25 



that the appointee shall use his influence to promote the elec- 
tion of the President. Now, if all this were conceded, does 
not my colleague perceive that the appropriate remedy would 
have to be found, not in a gag bill, but in the amendment of 
the Constitution, changing the appointing power into other 
hands, or limiting the period of presidential service to a single 
term of four or six years? By the last amendment, no contest 
ever could take place between the ins and the outs. It would 
then be, in every instance, not who should be put out, but who 
should be put into the presidential seat. Then, sir, there could be 
no selfish motive prompting to an abuse of Executive patronage; 
nor any adequate one for charging corruption and ambition on 
any man who was faithfully endeavoring honestly to administer 
the Government. It was under these views that I have already 
■ubmitted a proposition to amend the Constitution of the United 
States, in away that will, in my opinion, be the true and proper 
remedy for all complaints, real and pretended, against Executive 
patronage and dictation. I shall call it up in a few days, and see 
what course the gentleman and his friends will take on this 
subject. But, sir, in the meantime, I hesitate not to say, that 
this patronage is greatly overrated, as to its influence on elec- 
tions. On an average, the President cannot make more than a 
dozen or two important appointments in each State; these 
could not produce even a ripple on the broad and mighty sur- 
face of its population; beside this, an over-active zeal never 
fails to weaken the cause it espouses. 

The influence of office-holders is more than counterbalanced 
by that of office-seekers Let us examine it, first as to the per- 
sonal exertions of the parties themselves. Mr. Van Buren since 
March, 1837, has been in. Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, and General 
Harrison, have all wanted to get in by putting Mr. Van Buren out. 
Mr. Webster makes his electioneering tour through the north- 
west; Mr. Clay moves out upon the north, and arrogantly traver- 
ses Mr. Van Buren's own country. Gen. Harrison takes charge 
of the mighty West, keeping up a brisk correspondence, remod- 
eling his old political opinions, and putting himself in as ac- 
ceptable a position as possible between the contending parties 
of the day. Sir, do you not see at once that, on the score of 
personal exertions, it is precisely three to one in favor of the 



26 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

outs? But it is said that the President in office has so much 
patronage, so many offices to bestow, that it gives him an over- 
whelming advantage over all competitors. Well, let us pause 
and examine the weight of this objection. He can appoint 
one Secretary of State, and that one will have to work against 
three Secretaries expectant without — that is, against Mr. Clay's 
Secretary, Mr. Webster's Secretary, and General Harrison's 
Secretary — three to one again — and so of the Secretary of 
War, and all the other secretaries ; and, in fact, of all the other 
officers and agents of the Government, great and small. I 
have always doubted whether this power of conferring office 
was much calculated to advance the popularity of a President. 
Many are always expecting to be called, while but few can ac- 
tually be chosen. The disappointed often fall back into a state 
of indifference as to the future success of the President, and 
sometimes find revenge for his supposed neglect and ingrati- 
tude in the open abandonment and denunciation of him. Sir, 
I do not pause in the line of this argument to give you instances 
of this sort during the period of General Jackson's administra- 
tion ; they abounded to an extent which few have suspected ; 
they have no doubt abounded more or less in the history of 
every administration. 

Mr. Speaker, I have already stated that, for nearly half a 
century, the people of the United States were contented and 
satisfied with the unbounded and unquestioned freedom of their 
elections. What occasion was there, then, for the revival of 
this twice rejected proposition? twice rejected, at the time of 
introduction, by my honorable colleague, in 1837. Sir, I re- 
member well the pretext then offered for its revival. It was the 
alleged dictation of General Jackson — his dictation in writing 
his Gwinn and Shclbyville letters, and expressing himself freely 
and fully on the public men and the public measures of the day- 
These, sir,were thepretexts for all this cry of dictation and of bring- 
ing Executive patronage to bear on the freedom of elections. And 
yet, sir, now that the occasion has gone by — now that the smoke 
of party contest has cleared up, so far as General Jackson is 
concerned, no man can be found who can lay his finger on a 
single line or sentence, ever written by General Jackson about 
those times, that has the slightest resemblance to dictation to 



ON THE FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. 27 

his countrymen. To dictate, is to suggest, to point out with 
authority, and is nearly synonymous with command. It is some- 
thing much stronger than mere counsel or advice, and yet 
is a shade lower than an imperative order. In the light of this 
definition, I defy any man living to show me a single expres- 
sion in the Gwinn letter which evinces the slightest wish on the 
part of General Jackson to dictate — to order or command his 
countrymen what course to pursue in the selection of his suc- 
cessor. General Jackson was the acknowledged head of the 
Republican party ; he saw the dangers which surrounded it ; he 
knew well the numerous and powerful enemies that were en- 
gaged to overthrow and destroy it ; he knew well its strength 
and power and invincibility, so long as it should remain undi- 
vided. When Judge White was brought forward, he instantly 
perceived the dangers of division, and wrote his Gwinn letter 
of counsel and advice, but not of dictation ; a letter expres- 
sive of no preference of Mr. Van Buren over Judge White ; a 
letter exhorting only to unanimity, and pointing out, in his 
judgment, the best means of attaining it. Yet, for doing this, 
he was denounced by my colleague and his party as a tyrant, 
a despot, and dictator. Yes, sir, for writing such a letter as 
this, that man, whose whole life had been one continued scene 
of noble and gallant daring in defence of his country, was de- 
nounced as a Roman dictator — ready and resolved to overturn 
those very liberties which he would have died to maintain. 
Sir, the advice and counsel of General Jackson on that occa- 
sion might by many have been considered injudicious, or even 
indelicate, according to the taste and fancy of individuals. 
But I maintain, before my countrymen and the world, that the 
charge of dictation, so loudly and repeatedly made by my col- 
league and his party, is no where sustained by that letter. 

But this unfounded charge of dictation is sometimes attemp- 
ted to be sustained by a reference to his Shelbyville letter ; a 
letter written in reply to an invitation to partake of a public 
dinner proposed to be given to him by the noble-hearted Demo- 
cracy of Bedford county. He declined attending; alluded to 
the recent and frequent political tergiversations which had oc- 
curred, but prophesied boldly that the people of Tennessee, in 
spite of them, would stand true and steadfast to their ancient 



28 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



Republican principles. Time has now subjected to its unerring 
scrutiny the truth or falsehood of every statement made in 
that letter. The banner of Mr. Clay under which my two col- 
leagues (Mr. Gentry and Mr. Bell) and their whole party fought 
the battles of the last Tennessee campaign, was at once the 
evidence of their change, and the signal of their defeat. If 
further proof shouldbe required to tear away every shred of doubt, 
which might yet hang around this question of imputed change, 
let it be found in the nomination of the Harrisburg convention. 
No, not in that convention, for Tennessee was not there ; her late 
leaders had not the face to ask her to be there. They knew 
that, on direct proposal, Tennessee would shrink from the ad- 
justment of rival pretensions between three individuals, every 
one of whom she had rejected on former occasions. No, not in 
that convention, but in that confirmation of its proceedings 
which took place in this city ; a confirmation in which both of 
my honorable colleagues participated, and which has since re- 
ceived the sanction and approval of nearly their whole party 
in Tennessee. 

This Shelby ville letter was the first warning given by General 
Jackson, that a deep laid scheme had been formed to throw 
Tennessee out of the Republican ranks, and to place her among 
the opposition or Federal States of the Union. The improba- 
bility of success in so daring an attempt, encouraged the bold- 
est and most unequivocal denials of the charge, denials so bold 
and so unequivocal that the known sagacity of General Jackson 
and his deep and holy devotion to the Republican institutions 
of his country, could scarcely save him from the imputation of 
having slandered and traduced the alleged authors of the at- 
tempt. But time, I repeat, has dissipated every doubt on the 
subject. Those who were designated in that letter as newborn 
Whigs (to indicate that they were not of that ancient and im- 
mortal band who so justly and so proudly bore the name) now 
no longer attempt to conceal their purposes ; but boldly and 
publicly claim Tennessee to be an opposition State; trained, 
during the last summer, under the banner of Mr. Clay, but to 
be enlisted permanently, in the next, under that of General Har- 
rison. Sir, I thank God that General Jackson lived long enough 
to see the refluent wave of the popular will in the last elections, 



ON THE FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. 29 

to hear the coming murmurs of an indignant and deceived peo- 
ple ; but I sincerely pray that he may live to see (and, living, 
he will see) how proudly that noble and gallant State will resume 
her position among the Republican States, faithful and devoted 
as she was at the moment when her most illustrious citizen 
retired from the toils and labors of public life to repose be- 
neath the shade of her majestic forests. Sir, I but glance at 
these things. I refer to and comment on the Gwinn and Shel- 
byville letters, because they constitute a part of the history of 
this bill, the original pretext for its introduction. I have no 
disposition to revive them unnecessarily in the public remem- 
brance, but a reference to them is indispensible, to show that 
the original pretext was as groundless as the present necessity 
for it, under this Administration, is notoriously insufficient. 

Mr. Speaker, I desire now to reply to some of the com- 
plaints made by one of my colleagues (Mr. Bell) against the 
Democratic party of our State, in his speech on the Cumber- 
land road bill. On that bill, scarcely noticing the merits of 
the question, its constitutionality or expediency, he took occa- 
sion to denounce the past and present administrations " as a 
standing fraud on the country." A standing fraud in having 
professed to be opposed to internal improvements ; when, in 
truth and in fact, it only pretended and feigned such an oppo- 
sition just before an election. By means of this fraud 
the Democratic party of his own State had been imposed upon 
and had read him out of the church as a heretic and unbeliever. 
I might take issue with him on all these points. I might de- 
mand the proofs of these bold assertions; but they are stale 
charges which have been often refuted, and would lead me off 
from the alleged imposition on the Democracy of Tennessee. 
Sir, from the day of the veto message of President Jackson on 
the Maysville road bill, the people of our State have under- 
stood that subject well. In her primary assemblies, in her 
legislature, and in her convention of 1835, Tennessee approved 
that message. All her public men, with no remembered excep- 
tion, then paid homage to its principles and doctrines. I do not 
understand my honorable colleague as now questioning its pro- 
priety, but as resting his complaints on the ground that he has 
been excommunicated, not for any vote given, or speech made 



3 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

here in favor of internal improvements, but because his polit- 
ical associations in this House were with those who were op- 
posed to that message. I fear that the gentleman has in some 
degree mistaken the grounds of his excommunication. It was 
because, professing to be opposed to the whole scheme of in- 
ternal improvements himself, he enlisted under the banner 
and became the warm and zealous advocate of those who were 
in favor of them ; exerting his great talents and influence to 
transfer the power of this Government to hands which he knew 
would engage in these wasteful and extravagant expenditures. 
There, sir, was the true point of his offending. He became the 
advocate of the father of the whole system, and it will surely 
lend nothing to his restoration to his old political church, that 
he is now ranged under the banner of General Harrison, who 
stands committed, by his votes, his speeches, and his letters, 
to carry out the same policy. Of what avail was it, then, that 
the gentleman took his pilgrimage over the Ohio, ranging 
about in search of some Democrat whose peculiar opinions and 
position in reference to the Cumberland road, would seem to 
save him from the imputation of evil associations? In that 
pilgrimage he happened to come across my excellent friend 
from Indiana (Mr. Howard,) and instantly exclaimed, "Behold 
what good Democratic society I am in !" Sir, it is not from 
one or two associations that we judge men ; it is from their 
general intercourse, their common Avalk and conversation, that 
we judge them. If the gentleman had never taken up Mr. 
Clay ; if he will now surrender General Harrison ; if he will 
come out from among the ancient and bitter enemies of Gen 1 
eral Jackson and his doctrines; "if he will come out from 
among them as not being of them," then he may expect for- 
giveness and restoration to his ancient church. I repeat, to 
his ancient church. I remember when, twenty years ago, we 
were both youthful and zealous members of the same church ; 
admiring the same men, and advocating the same doctrines 
of Democracy. Soon after we commenced our career, the 
gentleman passed by me, as in merit he should have done, and 
rose upward and higher in public observance and approbation, 
until the Democracy of Tennessee claimed him as one of her 
proudest and noblest sons. She had no treasures which she 



ON THE FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. 31 

did not open to him, and no honors which she did not gladly 
confer. In this early and high career, the gentleman had no 
rival in the esteem, and confidence, and admiration of the peo- 
ple of Tennessee — no rival save one. Not that one whose 
fame and achievements had made him the common property 
of the nation; (and when I except him, none can be at a loss 
to know to whom I allude.) I know that the actions and espe- 
cially the motives of public men are often subjected to unjust 
misrepresentation and censure. I will not, therefore, even 
allude to those that have been so often attributed to the gen- 
tleman, further than to say, that from the period of his last 
unsuccessful competition here for the honors which you now 
enjoy, suspicion followed suspicion like the shadows of the 
passing cloud, until the Democracy of Tennessee was forced 
into the reluctant belief that the ardor of the gentleman had 
greatly abated, if his affections were not totally estranged from 
her. His separation was the work of time — not accomplished 
at once by any sudden and overt act of defection. But though 
gradual, it was nevertheless complete, thorough, undeniable, 
and final. It was, on that very account, the more prejudical. 
There never was an hour when the Democracy of our State 
could not have given up the gentleman and half a score of oth- 
ers like him, and still have moved onward unchecked and un- 
harmed by the loss. But by this slow and gradual process he 
carried off with him hundreds and thousands of confidinar 
friends, who would have sacrificed any thing sooner than sus- 
pect his devotion to the true and genuine principles of De- 
mocracy. 

Here may be found the true cause of those dreadful disasters 
and defeats which the gentleman and his friends sustained in 
the last summer's election. A generous and confiding people 
had followed the gentleman into the support of Judge White 
for the Presidency ; they had returned members to the General 
Assembly to help out in the accomplishment of that object; 
they had sent here almost an entire representation favorable fco 
his wishes. So ingenious and artful was the gentleman's with- 
drawal from the Republican ranks, that before the people were 
aware of it they were enlisted in their primary assemblies, in 
their Legislature, in the halls of Congress, in fact every where, 



32 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

in accomplishing the political purposes of the gentleman and 
his friends. 

But, sir, all these precautions and preparations would not 
do. In spite of them, Judge White's pretensions weakened as 
the election approached. When it was over, the failure was 
so great, the discomfiture so complete, that the people of Ten- 
nessee began seriously to inquire why and how it was they 
had been so much deceived. They had voted for Judge White, 
as a Republican or Democrat — as a Jackson man — a better 
Jackson man than Mr. Van Buren. In giving that vote, she 
stood undaunted at the polls, ready to deny, in the face of the 
whole world, that she intended either to desert her principles, 
or to separate herself from the other Democratic States of the 
Union. Proud in the consciousness of these truths, when that 
vote was afterward challenged, she looked to those leaders 
who had instigated her to the act to stand forth and vindicate 
her before the world. But, sir, what was her surprise, her deep 
mortification, when those leaders refused to do so — when those 
very leaders proclaimed that she had changed — that she had 
left Jackson and his doctrines — that she had separated herself 
from the other Democratic States of the Union. Wlien they 
went even farther than this — when they called on her not to 
recede ; that she had gone too far ; that retreat was impossi- 
ble, and that henceforward she must range herself under the 
banner, the so often rejected banner, of Henry Clay, of Ken- 
tucky ! Sir, the annunciation was astounding. What had only 
been suspected, was now openly avowed ! What was at first 
only hinted at, in obscure and misty prophecy, now stood forth 
in full and undoubted fulfilment ! 

[Here Mr. C. H. Williams rose and denied that Judge White had ever 
changed his opinions on any important political principles, and called on 
his colleague to point them out, if he meant to impute them to that distin- 
guished individual, now no more. 

Mr. Brown replied, he was not then discussing the political opinions of 
Judge White, hut endeavoring to explain and adjust certain charges of his 
other colleague (Mr. Bell,) against the Democracy of Tennessee ; hia 
business was, therefore, with the living, and not with the dead. Beside 
this, Mr. Brown said he did not mean to allow this debate to take any 
direction which would enable that gentleman to raise a false issue in the 
case, and represent him as disturbing the repose and invading the sanctity 



ON THE FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. 33 

of the grave. He hoped he was too well acquainted with his business to be 
taken in that way.] 

From the hour when the gentleman (Mr. Bell,) about five 
miles south of Nashville, at a dinner occasion, admitted that 
he was in favor of Mr. Clay, the people of Tennessee began 
to take the alarm. Many of them, like my honorable colleague 
from the Bedford district, began to suspect that they had been 
betrayed ; betrayed by men, too, in whose political and personal 
fidelity they would have intrusted their lives. My colleague 
(Mr. Watterson) first came into public life when he Avas 
scarcely eligible to its honors, and when the excitement in our 
State in favor of Judge White was at its highest pitch. Young, 
ardent, and confiding, he never permitted himself to distrust 
the assurances given by the friends of Judge White, that he 
and Mr. Van Buren were of the same political party; and that 
all that was stable in principle, or honorable and consistent in 
character, must be lost, before either could join the opposition. 
Under these assurances he united himself to the White party, 
and it was not until he saw the flag of Mr. Clay " floating 
aloft in the breeze," and borne lustily by those very men on 
whose assurances he had relied, that he abandoned that party, 
and returned to his position in the Jackson ranks. Under the 
explanation which he has just given, the rebuke of my col- 
league (Mr. Gentry) fell harmless at his feet. 

The same explanation belongs to hundreds and thousands of 
others in Tennessee, who, like him, refused to leave the Jack- 
son party, and to go over to the arms of the opposition ; an oppo- 
sition then headed by John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, and 
Henry Clay ; I say then, not now. These great leaders of the 
opposition no longer bear about them the insignia of com- 
mand. They have fallen back as mere subalterns in the ranks 
of Federalism, giving up the command to what they know to 
be feebler, but hope may prove more available hands. This, 
I believe, is conformable to what was at one period the Roman 
practice ; not to select their ablest generals to command their 
armies, but rather to choose those who had proved themselves 
most fortunate. But, sir, it is not my purpose to complain of 
this strange selection of a commander-in-chief for the opposi- 
tion ; but to inform my honorable colleague that it was the 

4 



34 CONGKESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

discovery that Tennessee was to be transferred to that opposi- 
tion, whoever might be its commander-in-chief, that sacrificed 
so many of his friends in the last election. It was this that 
made them drop one by one by his side, reducing to a bare 
majority of one, that proud and faithful band of friends that 
used to surround him on this floor. The gentleman portrayed 
these losses in most touching and eloquent lamentation, but 
seemed wholly at a loss how to account for them. 

Mr. Speaker, I have not done with the associations of my 
colleague yet, nor with his charge against the Democracy of 
Tennessee, for having excommunicated him on account of these 
associations. It is the theme of reiterated complaint that, du- 
ring the last summer, he was denounced throughout the State 
as a Federalist, and that he was doomed to see his friends fal- 
ling in all directions around him under the same charge. While 
I do not become his accuser in this particular, I am sorry to 
say that I have witnessed nothing in his associations, during 
the present session, at all calculated to relieve him from such 
a charge. What were those associations in the election of 
Speaker? I saw him of Massachusetts (Mr. Adams,) I saw 
another (Mr. Saltonstall,) whose connexion with the Hartford 
convention is now notorious; and yet another (Mr. Reed,) an 
avowed Federalist, I believe, during the war and ever since ; 
all supporting the gentleman for that important office. So also, 
I believe, did every other Federalist on this floor. They all 
came flocking to his standard. These were ugly associations 
for Republican Tennessee to witness. Mark, sir, I do not say 
that all who voted for him were Federalists ; far from it ; but I 
do mean to say that as far as I have learned the politics of 
gentlemen here, every Federalist on this floor voted for him. 
There never was such a party in this or perhaps any other 
country like the Federal party. Though often subdued and 
conquered, itnever disbands. In the darkest hour of its peril, 
existing in secret and mysterious organization, it will suddenly 
reappear, and, uniting itself to one of two nearly balanced 
competitors, decide the victory in his favor, claiming the fu- 
ture control of his actions as the reward of its services. In- 
satiate in its demands for power, when rendered odious by its 
usurpations, it often assumes some sacred form or some conse- 



ON THE FREEDOM OF ELECTIONS. 35 

crated name, and by the very impudence of the assumption, 
again recommends itself to public favor. I feel sorry that my 
colleague should have been ever charged with having united 
himself with any such party ; but I must regard it as ominous 
that, at the moment of his withdrawal from the Democratic 
ranks, he should have found so many of that party ready to 
receive him with open arms, and to help him onward to one of 
the highest offices of the Republic. I trust that I make this 
allusion to my colleague's having been run as the Whig can- 
didate for Speaker, and to his having been supported by the 
Federal portion of that party, without personal indelicacy; I 
advert to it only as a part of the history of parties in this 
House. The office of Speaker is worthy the ambition of any 
man, and I do not call in question his qualifications to dis- 
cbarge its duties. But I will not dwell further on this point; I 
come to another that has opened a gulf between him and the 
Democracy of Tennessee, deep and wide as ever separated 
Dives from Lazarus. I mean the gentleman's course in rela- 
tion to Abolition petitions. Sir, not only have the people of 
Tennessee, but of the South generally, looked upon that course 
with infinite pain and mortification. It was a course new and 
unexpected to them ; a course not sanctioned by any thing in 
his former conduct, and only to be accounted for by his anxiety 
to place himself in a proper attitude or condition to support the 
Harrisburg nomination. I do not make the point now that the 
nominee of that convention is an Abolitionist, but it is notorious 
and undeniable that his nomination over Mr. Clay was effec- 
ted by abolition influence. The exulting and fanatic shout was 
instantly raised " that another President shall never come from 
a slaveholding State." I allude to this nomination in order 
that I may account for the unexpected position now taken by 
my honorable colleague in favor of receiving, referring, and 
reporting on these petitions. 

[ After Mr. Brown had gone into an examination of the former course 
of Mr. Bell on this subject (not here inserted,) he was called to order by- 
Mr. Cooper and Mr. Banks. The Speaker decided that Mr. Brown was 
giving the debate too wide a range to be relevant to the bill under dis- 
cussion.] 

Mr. Brown said he would conform with pleasure to the sug- 



36 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

gestion of the Speaker, and conclude what he had to say by 
desiring the House not to give this bill the go-by, but now that 
it had been fully discussed and examined, to pronounce a 
solemn and deliberate judgment either for or against it. 

The vote was then taken, 

" Shall the bill be rejected?"— Ayes 108, noes 53. 

So the bill was rejected, by the following vote : 

YEAS — Messrs. Judson Allen, Hugh J. Anderson, Atherton, Banks, 
Beatty, Beirne, Blackwell, Briggs, Aaron V. Brown, Albert G. Brown, 
Burke, William O. Butler, John Campbell, Carr, Carroll, Casey, Chap- 
man, Clifford, Coles, Conner, Mark A. Cooper, William R. Cooper, 
Craig, Cushing, Dana, John Davis, John W. Davis, Doan, Doig, 
Dromgoole, Duncan, Earl, Eastman, Ely, Fine, Floyd, James Garland, 
Gerry, Goggin, Hammond, Hand, John Hastings, Hawkins, Hillen, 
Holleman, Hook, Hopkins, Howard, Thomas B. Jackson, Jameson, Cave 
Johnson, Nathaniel Jones, Keim, Kemble, Kille, Leadbetter, Leonard, 
Lewis, Lucas, McClellan, McKay, Mallory, Marchand, Medill, Miller, 
Montanya, Montgomery, Samuel W. Morris, Newhard, Parrish, Parmen- 
ter, Parris, Paynter, Petrikin, Pope, Prentiss, Ramsey, Reynolds, Rives, 
Robinson, Edward Rogers, Ryall, Samuels, Shaw, Shepard, John Smith, 
Thomas Smith, Starkweather, Steenrod, Strong, Stuart, Sumter, Swear- 
ingen, Taylor, Francis Thomas, Jacob Thompson, Turney, Underwood, 
Vroom, David D. Wagener, Warren, Watterson, Weller, Wick, Jared 
W. Williams, Henry Williams, Joseph L. Williams, and Worthing- 
ton— 108. 

NAYS — Messrs. Andrews, Barnard, Bell, Bond, Brockway, Anson 
Brown, Calhoun, William B. Campbell, Chinn, James Cooper, Crans- 
ton, Davies, Garret Davis, Deberry, Dellet, Edwards, Evans, Everett, 
Fillmore, Gentry, Giddings, Patrick G. Goode, Hiland Hall, Hawes, 
Henry, Hoffman,' Hiram P. Hunt, Kempshall, Lincoln, Morgan, Calvary 
Morris, Osborne, Palen, Randall, Randolph, Rariden, Ridgway, Russell, 
Saltonstall, Sergeant, Simonton, Slade, Truman Smith, Stanly, Talia- 
ferro, Toland, Triplett, Peter J. Wagner, John White, Thomas W. 
Williams, Lewis Williams, Christopher H. Williams, and Wise — 55. 



SPEECH, 

On the bill to charter the " Fiscal Bank of the United Stales." 
Delivered in the House of Representatives, August 4, 1S41. 



Mr. Chairman : I engage in the discussion of this bill with 
the most profound and unaffected reluctance; a reluctance 
greatly increased by that inexorable argument, which no 
refutation can silence — that discussion is useless ; the people 
having decreed, in the recent election, that a national bank 
shall be established. No man bows with a more cheerful sub- 
mission than I do to the clear and decided mandates of the 
popular will on all subjects of constitutional legislation. But, 
on the present occasion, I must be allowed most respectfully 
to question the fact that the people of this country ever have 
pronounced such a decree in favor of a bank. When or where 
was such a decree pronounced? On what record of party 
proceedings is it to be found? Can you find it in the pro- 
ceedings of the Harrisburg convention, where, of all other 
places, it should have been found? No, sir, it is not there. 
Not one word was said by that assembly, showing that either 
of its nominees was in favor of a United States Bank. Will 
you search for it in Virginia, every page of whose history will 
furnish some illustrious name to chide you for the foul in- 
sinuation that she had been faithless to the principles of her 
Jeffersons, her Taylors, her Roanes, and her Pendletons ? 
No, sir; do not go to Virginia, the land of my birth and the 
home of my youth, for what the most errant of all her sons 
(Mr. Rives) has never ventured to assert. 

Can you find this decree in favor of a bank in North 
Carolina, whose vote for the late President was so over- 
whelming as to astonish even those who gave it? No, sir ; 



33 OXGRES8I0NAL SPEECHES. 

for one of ner own citizens, now rewarded for his real or 
supposed influence in bringing about this result, by a seat 
in the Cabinet, standing in the presence of hundreds and 
thousands of the people of that State, pronounced the 
charge that General Harrison was in favor of a national 
bank to be false — utterly false. In Georgia, so great was 
the variety of opinions as to what were the sentiments of 
General Harrison on the subject, that it would be the very 
height of disingenuousness to attribute his vote in that 
State to any known preference in favor of such an institu- 
tion. In Alabama, the great whig convention of that State, 
in a very able appeal to their constituents, not only aver- 
red the fact, but collated the proofs, to show General Harri- 
son's opposition to a national bank on every ground what- 
soever. That the bank question was more or less involved 
in that election everywhere, I do not mean here to deny ; 
but that it w r as blended with others, of local and exciting 
influences, is equally manifest. Who in this hall would be 
bold enough to aver that in the Keystone or the Empire 
State the election turned exclusively on the question of 
bank or no bank? It is notorious that the other ques- 
tions mingled in the canvass, and that anti-masonry and 
abolition contributed in no small degree in producing the 
results in jthose States. So it was in Ohio and Indiana, 
where the bank question may be regarded as the least 
distinctive and controlling one in the canvass. 

Yet, sir, in the face of these well known facts, we have 
been silenced by the previous question — restricted to a sin- 
gle hour in debate — all the ancient forms and rules of those 
who have preceded us have been broken down ; and this 
measure, with others, literally forced upon us, in rapid suc- 
cession and indecent haste ; all under the plea that dis- 
cussion is useless — that the season for debate and argu- 
ment has gone by ; and all that remains is but to register 
the solemn decrees of the people in favor of such an insti- 
tution ! 

Mr. Chairman, there is one thing which that inexorable ma- 
jority, by which all these things have been said and done, has 
never yet pretended to deny. It is well known that the Ameri- 



ON THE FISCAL BANK BILL. 39 

can people are greatly divided in opinion as to the best mode 
or form of banking in this country — whether by individuals, 
by joint-stock companies, by banks owned by the General 
Government, by banks belonging exclusively to the States, or 
by banks jointly owned and governed by the States and the 
General Government in partnership. It is known that all 
these various plans have their advocates, numerous and pow- 
erful, in every State of the Union. Now, it is not pretended 
that these various plans were presented, and their relative 
merits passed upon by the people, in the recent election. On 
the contrary, it is known that the canvass was otherwise con- 
ducted. No specific plan was presented — no details were 
gone into. The evils of a depreciated currency, the necessity 
of having a great regulator to control the local institutions, 
constituted the theme of every orator, whose generalities were 
intended to embrace every one who might be in favor of any 
species of banking. 

Nay, I will venture to record another fact, which never has 
been nor can be successfully controverted: that, in a very 
large majority of cases, the travelling rhetors of the dominant 
party expressly disclaimed the old United States Bank as the 
sample or model of the new one. They scarcely ever con- 
troverted the objections taken by General Jackson, and which 
they knew the American people had over and over again sus- 
tained. This was emphatically true in the State of Tennes- 
see. There, every public man in our legislative halls, as well as 
in the convention which revised our constitution, had sustained 
and approved those objections. Our whole population, whether 
devoted to General Jackson or to Judge White, had condemned 
the old, or the Biddle Bank, as it was commonly called, every- 
where and on all occasions. Hence it was that no public 
debater in that State, as far as I have ever known or heard, 
ever distinctly avowed the old bank to be his favorite model 
of a new one. Nor do I believe that there is now, or ever has 
been, one-third of that population who would say that it was 
their model of a national bank. They had formed a deep and 
fixed abhorrence of that institution ; and when looking out for 
relief under the commercial revulsion of 1837, they looked 
to an institution owned by the United States, governed by the 



40 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

United States ; its profits going to the people of the United 
States ; with each State having, and, when able, owning a 
branch and applying its profits to its own State purposes. 
Sir, this now is, and has been for years, the plan or model of 
a bank which has made so many bank converts in that State. 

I will adduce only one other proof to show that the people 
in the last election did not pronounce any such decree as is 
now pretended, — that the whole argument is a gross attempt 
to pervert, and, in fact, to falsify their proceedings. It is the 
authority of President Tyler himself, a party in that election. 

In his message to Congress, now lying before me, he has ex- 
pressly told us : "What is now to be regarded as the judg- 
ment of the American people on the whole subject, [the banks 
and the currency,] I have no accurate means of determining, 
but by appealing to their more immediate representatives. 
The late contest, which terminated in the election of General 
Harrison to the presidency, was decided on principles well 
known and openly declared ; and while the sub-treasury re- 
ceived in the result the most decided condemnation, yet no 
other scheme of finance seemed to have been concurred in." 

Sir, the President was right — the nation knows he was right. 
The people, if they decided against the sub-treasnry, did not 
decide for a United States Bank ; and least of all did they 
decide in favor of such a bank as this, modelled and fashioned 
as it is, with slavish exactness, after the old United States 
Bank. Since the election, that institution has expired, amid 
the groans and sufferings of those who reposed in it a too fatal 
confidence to the last. Its inherent defects and hideous cor- 
ruptions are now lying open and bare to public inspection. 
The committee who reported this bill have profited nothing by 
its past history, and have taken no warning from its disastrous 
overthrow. They still hold it up, in the person of this bill, to 
the admiration of the American people, and challenge for it 
their approbation for twenty years to come ! 

Regarding, then, as I do, this whole subject as fairly open 
for debate, I shall proceed to the discussion of the bill, with 
that candor and impartiality which its importance deserves. 

My first objection to this bank is, that it is a charter of in- 
corporation, which I hold this Government to be incapable of 



OX THE FISCAL BANK BILL. 4 * 

granting. The constitution contains, as is admitted, no ex- 
press grant of such authority. The records of the conven- 
tion, now published to the world, clearly show that the power 
to create corporations generally was proposed, referred, re- 
ported on, debated, and the vote taken by yeas and nays, and 
expressly refused by the convention. Can any thing be more 
conclusive than this? We are now searching for some con- 
genial spot in this constitution where we can locate this power. 
We must find it, or the passage of this bill will b.e a rank and 
perjured usurpation. Well, we search for it — we cannot find it 
in the constitution. We go back to the journals and records 
of those who formed it. There we find it was refused in 
every form and in every shape in which it could be proposed. 
What then? We are told to look for it by implication. Impli- 
cation, sir, against the express and positive record of the con- 
vention ! Ay, to implication ; for we are told that the conven- 
tion declined putting down this power plainly and distinctly in 
the constitution, lest the people — particularly those of Pennsyl- 
vania, who were very hostile to banks — might see it, and re- 
fuse to ratify the constitution. 

Sir, this is the argument universally employed to overturn 
this important, this omnipotent fact. Let me repeat it. If 
the convention had given this power plainly, the people would 
have seen it, and would have rejected the constitution. It 
was therefore, designedly left, to be claimed by intendment or 
implication in aftertimes, when it would be too late for the peo- 
ple either to reject the constitution or to prevent its exercise. 
Now, sir, what is all this, but the imputation of a design in 
the framers of the constitution to practice the most reprehen- 
sible fraud on their constituents — constituents whose noble 
and gallant deeds in the war of independence, then just ter- 
minated, eminently entitled them to precisely such a form 
of government as they might freely choose, without being 
duped and deceived in the selection. This imputation against 
the venerable fathers of the republic is too foul and monstrous, 
and throws us back on the records of the convention, contain- 
ing a clear, express, and oft-repeated rejection of the power 
of establishing a bank or creating a corporation. Mr. Chair- 
man, in the absence of an express grant, there is a potency 



42 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



in those records second only to the constitution — a potency 
that outweighs a thousand-fold the opinions of individuals, 
however eminent — a potency which cannot be destroyed, but 
by the degradation and infamy of those whom America has 
most honored and most revered. 

The location of the principal bank within the District of 
Columbia is but a poor evasion of this constitutional objection. 
A vast and mighty power — not expressly granted to Congress, 
as the Legislature of the whole Union, and which, when dis- 
tinctly proposed, was expressly refused — is now claimed to 
have been conferred by that clause which gives it exclusive 
legislation over the little District of Columbia. Our legis- 
lation may be exclusive, as against Maryland and Virginia, 
by whom the Territory was ceded ; and still be litnited in its 
objects, and restricted by the general prohibitions of that in- 
strument. But, without insisting on this principle, and cer- 
tainly without abandoning it, I assume another, about which 
casuistry itself cannot hesitate. If Congress have the power 
of exclusive legislation over the District of Columbia, it must 
be for as well as in the District — local in its objects, and 
territorial in its action. To seize on a power granted for such 
limited and special purposes, and expand it over a mighty 
continent, is a shameless perversion of the constitution — a 
mean and fraudulent usurpation, far more wicked than the 
boldest interpolation of that instrument could be. Sir, the 
little dwarf which you pretend now to be harmlessly planting 
in this District, will presently lift his giant form high above it ; 
and, " looking abroad over this empire republic, will wave 
his money sceptre over crouching sovereignties and a prostrate 
people." Sir, do not believe that its location here, where 
there is no commerce, was intended as a concession to consti- 
tutional scruples, honestly entertained in any quarter of the 
Union. No, sir; it was to bring the bank in sight of the 
White House at the other end of the avenue ; not for his 
benefit who now inhabits it, but for his whose heart pants for 
its occupancy, and whose ambition even now is moving heaven 
and earth for its attainment. It is brought here, the vile 
and corrupting instrument of party, to be ever at hand, ready 
and willing to perpetuate the ascendency of those who gave 



ON THE FISCAL BANK BILL. 43 

it existence. Heretofore,, the political has been separated 
from the money power of the nation. Instead of a union, 
there has been a war between them. But henceforward there 
is to be peace — alliance — partnership. What before has been 
fiction, is now to be reality ; the sword and the purse are to 
be joined in united potency, to strengthen the arm of execu- 
tive domination. If allowed to use an illustration less war- 
like than the last, I would say, — this fiscal harlot, banished 
under the preceding administrations, now returns from her 
exile, leaning on the arm of her deliverer, ready and willing 
to pay, in adulterous gratitude, the guilty price of her ransom. 

My next point of objection is, that this is a charter of in- 
corporation of individuals, to whom the effectual control of the 
institution is conceded. The desire of gain is a principle so 
deeply engraven on the nature of man, that it cannot be era- 
dicated. This truth is nowhere found in stronger illustration 
than in the business of banking. The more paper issued, the 
greater their profits ; and from the natural propensity to which 
I have alluded, they are sure to overleap the feeble barriers 
of their charter, and to issue paper far beyond their ability of 
redemption. This desire for excessive profits, so subtle and 
insinuating, never has been, and never will be, successfully 
resisted. It is the real cause of all our former failures in the 
business of banking. It is the simple but potent principle 
that lies at the bottom of all the expansions and contractions 
of our paper currency, and consequently of the commercial 
revulsions and pecuniary distresses of the age. This cause 
must be removed before the evil can be remedied. Withdraw 
the business of banking from the hands of individuals — take 
it away from the suggestions of individual avarice — and you 
at once eradicate the fruitful cause of all our former failures, 
in this charter, the fact that the nation is to own one-third of 
the capital can make no possible difference. Just as sure as 
two-thirds are more than one-third, just so sure will individual 
avarice govern the institution, and cause it to run the same 
profligate career with its great prototype, and perish, like it, 
amid the stench and rottenness of its own corruption. 

Mr. Chairman, I must take time here to mention another 
objection which I have to this bank, as well as to all others 



44 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



owned by individuals, and conducted by them for their own 
benefit. I regard banking, or the making of paper-money, as 
the most enormous speculation of modern times. I allude not 
simply to the rate of interest, but to all the advantages, direct 
and collateral, which those enjoy who have ready access to the 
funds, and who have control over the banks. These enormous 
profits, accumulating in the coffers of individuals, introduce a 
proud and bloated aristocracy in out' land, and thereby destroy 
that plain republican equality of rights and of fortune which I 
have ardently desired might be long preserved in our country. 
I would join in no crusade against that wealth which may be 
acquired by honest industry and sagacious enterprise ; but I 
will forever protest against those special privileges which give 
to one favored class exclusive advantages over all others, and 
which must introduce into our young and rising country all the 
aristocratic distinctions of the old world. Other objections 
exist to individual or joint-stock banking, which do not fall 
within the range of the present debate, and which time will not 
allow me to enumerate. Repudiating, as I have done, all indi- 
vidual and joint-stock banking as banks of issues, there remain 
only two other modes of making paper-money in this country. 
These are, either by the nation in the aggregate, or by the sev- 
eral States of the Union, excluding individuals from all parti- 
cipation whatsoever. Neither of these forms of banking is 
now before us ; and the few precious moments of the brief hour 
which your rule allows, will not admit of their discussion. I 
leave them, therefore, with this declaration, — that I reject every 
plan of banking by the General Government, and infinitely 
prefer seeing a paper currency emanating, if at all, from the 
respective States of the Union; — not from corporations of in- 
dividuals created by them ; but from banks, owned exclusively 
by the States; governed by them; and all the profits made by 
them received and enjoyed by all the people of the States. 
As a member of Congress, I have nothing to say or do for or 
against such a system of banking by the States : the question 
belongs exclusively to themselves ; but, as an American citizen, 
I am free to declare that, of all the different modes of banking 
which have been heretofore tried or proposed, I prefer such a 



ON THE FISCAL BANK BILL. 45 

system by the States as I have mentioned. But I return from 
this digression to further objections to this bill. 

The creation of this corporation is the introduction of a new 
power into our form of government, more potent than any 
other known to the constitution. The legislative, judicial, and 
executive departments constitute the three great powers of 
the government. But here is a power more potent than any — 
I had almost said than all of them put together. Neither the 
Executive nor Judiciary can directly reach one in ten thousand 
of our population. In reference to currency, the Legislature 
only is authorized to coin and regulate the value of gold and 
silver, which the industry of individuals has dug out of the 
• earth, or procured in the course of lawful commerce. But 
here is a power that can make and circulate a currency many 
times greater in amount than all the gold and silver on this 
continent. By doing so, they are enabled to take the real 
money of the country out of circulation ; lock it up, and sub- 
stitute their own manufacture for it; and thus bring their powers 
to bear upon almost every individual of our seventeen millions 
of population. This new artificial person, making and then 
wielding the capital of a whole continent, regulates and con- 
trols the value of all the property, real and personal, and of all 
the labor, mechanical, agricultural, and commercial, of a mighty 
people. It is made to regulate the currency ; that is, to set up 
and pull down other institutions ; to make money plenty or 
scarce; to make property high or low, according to its own 
good pleasure. On every discount day, nine men are to as- 
semble in this city, on whose fiat hang the fortunes and des- 
tinies of this whole people. They send forth their high com- 
mands, east, west, north, and south, to their subordinates in 
the branches ; and in twenty days a whole continent lies pros- 
trate at their bidding. The friends of this bill tell us that these 
orders may go forth bearing the blessings of prosperity and 
plenty on their wings. If this be true, is it not necessarily true, 
also, that they may be laden with curses — with blight, and mil- 
dew, and death to the hopes and business of the country? A 
power so mighty, either for evil or for good, is now to be sprung 
into existence ; and no other power is to stay, or check, or con- 
trol its tremendous action, for twenty years to come. 



46 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



I pause, to demand if the people of this country would be 
willing to confer so great a power even on the Executive of 
their own choice? Would they bestow it on any nine members 
within these walls? or on any nine men who ever lived in this 
country, however illustrious their names or eminent their ser- 
vices? If they would not, can they be willing that a number 
of capitalists, — living at great distances from them, and who 
never had any sympathy with them in their wants, their suffer- 
ings, and their labors, — shall get together and appoint nine 
agents — for themselves, not for the country — for their own 
benefit, not that of the people — to regulate the currency, which 
is to control the price of all the property and all the labor of 
the country ? Sir, it cannot be so. It cannot be that the* 
American people, so jealous of their rights, are prepared to 
surrender them to a mercenary oligarchy — the more odious, 
because owing no responsibility to the people whom they plun- 
der and destroy. Sir, if it be the duty of Congress to regulate 
the currency, (which I deny.) let Congress do so itself, by its 
own officers, appointed by and responsible to them, as they in 
their turn are responsible to the people : but do not, I pray you, 
make an assignment of your duties to this avaricious, mercen- 
ary, soulless corporation, which will have its high interest and 
large dividends, although the people were starving for the 
bread of life. I pray you perpetrate no such wicked and hor- 
rid thing in this land. Make your own bank; found it on your 
own resources ; govern it by officers of your own selection, if 
you can do so under the constitution. Let all the profits of the 
operation enure to the benefit of all the people of the United 
States. Do this, bad as it would be, rather than form a corpo- 
ration in which you are to be a subordinate partner, impotent 
for all purposes of control ; and in which you will be compelled 
by your stock-jobbing partners to inflict the most heart-rending 
exactions and oppressions on the people you represent. Sir, 
the accumulated aversion of many years to a degraded and 
degrading partnership like this, induces me to repeat the im- 
ploration, that, if it be your duty to regulate the currency, 
do it yourself, without the agency and partnership of this 
corporation. 

What necessity is there, let me ask, for this amazing and 



ON THE FISCAL BANK BILL. 



47 



dangerous delegation of power ? Is it the too great s carcity 
of gold and silver to meet the demands of the growing com- 
merce of this country ? This bank with its thirty millions will 
not permanently add one solitary dollar to the specie on this 
continent — not one solitary dollar. Is it to make paper-money 
more abundant? Why, sir, that is the very disease of which 
this country has been dying for years. The excessive paper 
issues of 1834, '35, and '36, are known to have produced the 
revulsion of 1837. The veriest quacks and impostors now 
admit this. The process of diminution has been going on ever 
since 1837, with slow and painful but invaluable success. It 
was the universal prescription for the disease, that we should 
lessen the amount of paper, and bring it down to a fair and 
reasonable proportion to the precious metals. We have fol- 
lowed that prescription, until the country is evidently emerging 
from that state of indebtedness induced by extravagance and 
speculation, from which at one period we awfully feared it never 
could be rescued. But, after all, and in spite of all, we have rode 
out the storm ; we have neared the port ; we have gained sight 
of the land. And shall we be again thrown back on the same 
wide ocean of paper-money, from which we vainly hoped soon 
to be rescued? Look to the hundreds of millions of paper- 
money now in circulation ; then look to the beggarly amount 
of specie provided for its redemption; and say if there be not 
gross quackery, if not something worse, in the present propo- 
sition to increase the amount some sixty or seventy millions. 
Let me employ another illustration of our present condition. 
We have been for years drunken by extravagance and excess 
in every thing ; and now that the care of sincere and kind 
friends has nearly restored us from the vile debauch, one of our 
old bottle companions intrudes his prescription upon us, and in- 
sists that we shall run the same round of guilty dissipation as 
before. And, sir, it is astonishing to see with what ready and 
even eager willingness the infatuated patient, breaking away 
from the custody of his best friends, will follow the counsels of 
those who will but delude and destroy him. 

But, Mr. Chairman, I turn away from this bank, as the means 
of relief to the people, and as an institution to regulate the 
currency and general business of the country. I wish now to 



48 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



consider it as " the Fiscal Bank of the United States,"— a bank, 
as its name imports, necessary and proper, for the Government, 
in some way or other, in the collection, safekeeping, and dis- 
bursements of the public revenue. 

The eighth section of the first article of the constitution is 
an enumeration of the powers of Congress ; amongst which, 
that of collecting taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, is one of 
them. At the close of the same section, it is declared that 
" Congress may make all laws necessary and proper for car- 
rying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers 
vested by this constitution in the Government of the United 
States, or in any department or officer thereof." This is the 
congenial spot on which the bank has ever delighted to locate 
itself. The false pretence that it is necessary to the Govern- 
ment in the collection of its taxes and duties, is seized upon 
to give it existence ; whilst in truth and in fact it is solely in- 
tended for the benefit of the commercial business of the coun- 
try, and to subserve the interest of stock jobbers, speculators, 
and all others who live by their wits, instead of the honest 
labor of their hands. I repeat that it is a false pretense, for 
the experiment has been now repeated — which was first made 
in the earliest and purest days of the republic— of collecting, 
keeping, and disbursing the public revenue, without the agency 
of any bank whatsoever ; — an experiment which Washington 
first adopted; which Jefferson subsequently recommended 
should be again adopted ; which Judge White maintained to 
be entirely practicable; and which Mr. Bell declared could 
do no great good or harm to any of the great interests of this 
country. That experiment has been actually tried, tested, 
proved, for more than one entire year, with eminent and 
complete success. The much abused sub-treasury has de- 
monstrated that a bank is not necessary to carry on the finan- 
cial concerns of this nation. Although condemned, as the 
President says it has been, it retires full of honor, carrying 
with it a proud justification of its friends, and casting back upon 
its enemies a triumphant refutation of all their predictions of its 
entire failure. 

But, Mr. Chairman, not even the pretense of such a necessity 
is sustained by the provisions of this bill. The bank is not 



ON THE FISCAL BANK BILL. 49 

to be charged with the duty of collection at all. Your collec- 
tors of the customs and your receivers at the land offices are 
still to be continued, and every dollar is to be collected by them 
as heretofore. Nor is it true that the bank is to be charged 
with the payment or disbursement of the revenue: these, under 
the warrants of your Treasurer, are to be made by your pay- 
masters, pursers, and other public officers, as they have been 
from the foundation of the Government. All that this fiscal 
concern is to be employed by the Government to do, is to have 
the simple custody of our revenue during the brief period be- 
tween its collection and disbursement. And is this all the 
necessity — all the propriety for this mighty institution? Cer- 
tainly it is, all — all. Simply to keep your surplus revenue, 
when all agree that there should be no surplus ; and to keep it 
for a little while, until you can find some creditor willing to take 
it off your hands. What a mighty edifice to be reared on so 
small a foundation ! a mountain resting on a pebble ! 

Unable, as it is now falsely pretended, to keep our own reve- 
nue, we are called upon to establish this ponderous agency for 
that purpose, and for that purpose only. We must advance 
certainly ten millions — probably sixteen millions — to set this 
agency in operation. I mistake, sir; we do not advance the 
money; we have it not to advance. We must borrow it at 
home or abroad, and pay an interest of at least half a million 
of dollars. Ten millions, at five per cent., make that sum; 
and if we have to take the sixteen millions mentioned in the 
bill, it will be nearly three-quarters of a million. This ama- 
zing sum we must pay annually for the benefits of this won- 
derful agency. What was the cost of the Independent Treas- 
ury, which we are so often told the people have rejected? It 
did not exceed fifty thousand dollars per annum. Fifty thou- 
sand against five hundred thousand ! Yes, sir, carry this fact 
home, faithfully home to the people, — that for this new Fiscal 
Bank they must pay at least ten times as much as for the Inde- 
pendent Treasury. What a commentary on the economy of 
this reformed and reforming administration ! Where we for- 
merly paid ten dollars for the temporary custody of our reve- 
nues, we are to pay now one hundred ; and where one hundred, 

we must now pay one thousand ! You point me in vain to the 

5 



50 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



profits and dividends of this Fiscal Bank, for the reimbursement 
of all this interest. The fate of the old bank, and of hundreds 
of others now lying like shattered and broken wrecks over the 
whole ocean of incorporated insolvency, will furnish ample 
refutation to the argument. With all their profits and nearly 
all of their original capital wasted and plundered, what hopes 
can we have of future profits and dividends from this institu- 
tion, made by party, and whose proceeds will be prostituted 
and wasted for the vilest purposes of party ? 

Mr. Chairman, it is on a slender necessity, such as I have 
described, that the present charter is asked for with convul- 
sive anxiety. It was on such a foundation as this that the con- 
stitutionality of the old bank was sustained by the Supreme 
Court of the United States ; not that the judges thought such 
an institution to be necessary and proper, for that they have 
never decided; but that if Congress thought it so, it was not 
for them to decide to the contrary ; — 'that it was the exclusive 
province of Congress to decide on that question, and, having 
done so by passing the charter, it was not their province to set 
aside that decision. The celebrated opinion of Chief Justice 
Marshall, in the case of the Bank of Maryland, " has this ex- 
tent — no more." 

And yet the gentleman from Pennsylvania, in this debate, has 
pressed the argument on the House that this was the decision 
of the tribunal of the last resort, and that all the other depart- 
ments of the Government must yield and conform to its adju- 
dication. Sir, it is in exact accordance with its decisions that 
this House is now considering this very question of constitu- 
tionality. They have declared that it is our business to de- 
cide that question, and not theirs. If more than this is claimed 
to have been decided by that court, I deny its authority to have- 
gone further. We are co-ordinate and co-equal with the judi- 
ciary. It is our business to prescribe the law; it is theirs to 
administer it and enforce it between individuals. But the con- 
stitution is above both. Each, in its own department, must 
construe for itself, and neither can control or lord it over the 
other. That solemn oath which you administered to every 
member on this floor, embraced nothing but the constitution, 
and had nothing to do with those commentaries which the judi- 



ON THE FISCAL BANK BILL. 5 1 

ciary may have made upon it. The oath was personal ; the in- 
fraction of the constitution would be personal, and the high penal 
sanctions of that oath would be personal, both in time and 
eternity. 

But the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Botts) claims more 
than a Popish infallibility for this tribunal. Their decisions 
are to be above and to supersede the constitution. Instead of 
that sacred instrument being laid on our table, in order to be 
before us for perpetual reference, it is to be laid upon the shelf, 
or hid in some obscure recess of this vast Capitol, and the de- 
cisions of the Supreme Court substituted in its stead. This , 
sir, is what the gentleman's argument would do for the consti- 
tution. What does it do with the President ? The gentleman 
declares that, in the face of the decisions of that court, the 
President has no rights think about the high injunctions of the 
constitution ; that the court has thought for him — has expoun- 
ded for him ; and it is his bounden duty to conform, with implicit 
obedience, to its commands. The same argument leads to 
the stultification of this House and of the Senate of the United 
States. But, sir, I am not surprised at it. Throughout this 
session we have been told that we had no right to debate', now 
Ave are informed (what it was easy to anticipate) that we are 
not to think adversely to the Supreme Court. 

Yes, Mr. Chairman, the freedom of debate has been cloven 
down ; the liberty of thought has been denied to this House 
and to the President ; and these two great departments of our 
Government are proclaimed to be the mere agents to register 
the edicts of the judiciary. 

Sir, I am admonished that I have but three minutes more to 
protest against the passage of this bill, — three minutes more 
to protest against the monstrous doctrines by which it is sus- 
tained. Sir, I have no use for them, but to give them back to 
that inexorable majority by whom they were granted, 



NOTES. 



Mr. B. does not wish to be understood as saying that the journals of the 
convention show that the proposition to authorize Congress to charter a 
bank was, eo nomine, submitted to the convention and rejected. That there 
was such a proposition, however, is satisfactorily established by other tes- 
timony. He submits the following from Mr. Jefferson's Memoirs : "March 
the 11th, 1798. When the bank bill was under discussion in the House of 
Representatives, Judge Wilson came in, and was standing by Baldwin. 
Baldwin reminded him of the following fact which passed in the grand con- 
vention. Among the enumerated powers given to Congress, was one to 
erect corporations. It was on debate struck out. Several particular powers 
were then proposed. Among others, Robert Morris proposed to give to Con- 
gress a power to establish a national bank. Gouverneur Morris opposed 
it ; observing that it was extremely doubtful whether the Constitution they 
were framing could ever be passed at all by the American people ; that to 
give it its best chance, however, they should make it as palatable as possible, 
and put nothing into it not very essential, which might raise up enemies. 
That his colleague (Robert Morris) well knew that a bank had been the 
great bone of contention betweea the two parties of the State, from the 
establishment of their constitution ; having been erected, put down, erect- 
ed again, as either party preponderated ; that, therefore, to insert this power 
would instantly enlist against the whole instrument, the whole of the anti- 
bank party of Pennsylvania : whereupon it was rejected, as was every 
other special power, except that of giving copy-rights to authors, and pat- 
ents to inventors. The general power of incorporating being whittled down 
to this shred. Wilson agreed to the fact." 

The argument here submitted, as to the rejection of this power, is fully 
sustained, however, by the following extract from the journal of "the conven- 
tion. (1st vol. Elliott's Debates, page 278.) 

" Saturday, August 18, 1787. — The following additional powers proposed 
to be vested in the legislature of the United States, having been submitted 
to the consideration of the convention, &c, were referred, &c. The fifth 
proposition of the series was as follows: 

"To grant charters of incorporation in cases where the public good may 
require them, and the authority of a single State may be incompetent. 

" The 12th of the same series was in the following words : 

" To grant charters of incorporation." 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 53 

These two propositions being in the same series, offered by the same in- 
dividual at the same time, cannot be considered as tautological, but as really- 
intended for different objects. The first should be regarded, most probably, 
as intended for corporations for cutting canals or other improvements, where 
several States were interested, and other similar purposes. The second, as 
intended expressly for conferring banking powers ; that being the almost 
universal mode of creating banks in those days as well as now. If the se- 
cond proposition did not look exclusively to banks, it certainly included 
them, as did also the first proposition. 

On Wednesday, September 12th, the Committee of Revision report a 
revised draught ofthe^Constitution, from the various, irregular, and detached 
decisions which had been made, in which they do not propose to confer on 
Congress the right of creating corporations in either of the ways proposed 
in the above series. 

On the 13th (the next day after the report) it was moved and seconded 
"That the House proceed to the comparing of the report from the Com- 
mittee of Revision, with the articles which had been agreed to by the 
House, and to them referred for arrangement ;" and the same was read by 
paragraphs, compared, and in some places, corrected and amended. This 
was to be carefully done, in order to see if they had arranged it correctly, 
according to the decisions of the House. The report does not embrace 
corporations, in either of the forms mentioned ; hence, it is fair to conclude 
they had been rejected by the House, and therefore rejected by the com- 
mittee in their compilation. On the 14th of September, whilst this pro- 
cess was going on, they reached the eighth section of the first article. 
No one complained that anything had been omitted by the Committee of 
Revision; that they had left out improperly "the right to create corpora- 
tions," in either of the forms above mentioned. But a new proposition, to 
grant letters of incorporation for canals, &c, was presented, and voted down 
by the convention : Yeas, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia — 3; Nays, 
the other eight States. This was either a new proposition to procure the 
power, or it is a summary mode of identifying the old ones which were re- 
jected by the above vote. 

Mr. B., in his comparison of the relative expensiveness of the Inde- 
pendent Treasury and the Fiscal Bank, has placed the annual expenses of 
the former entirely too nigh. One-half of the amount stated would have 
been much nearer the mark. 



SPEECH, 

On Remitting the fine on General Jackson — Delivered in the 
House of Representatives, in Committee of the Whole, Jan- 
uary 8, 1844. 



Mr. Pratt, of New York, introduced the following Resolu- 
tion : 

Whereas the Legislatures of eighteen States of this Union, containing, 
at the last census, about fifteen millions out of the seventeen millions of 
the inhabitants of the United States, have instructed their Senators and re- 
quested their Representatives to refund the fine imposed on General Andrew 
Jackson by Judge Hall : And whereas strong expressions of public opin- 
ion have been made in favor of the same measure, in the remaining States 
of the Union : Therefore, 

Resolved, That at four o'clock, this day, all debate in Committee of the 
Whole House on the state of the Union, on House bill No. 1, to refund the 
fine imposed on General Jackson shall cease, and the committee shall pro- 
ceed to vote upon such amendments as may be pending, or as may be of- 
fered to said bill, and then report the same to the House, with such amend- 
ments as have been agreed to by the Committee. 

Which said resolution was adopted ; and thereupon the 
House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole House 
on the state of the Union, and proceeded with the considera- 
tion of said bill. 

Mr. Aaron V. Brown obtaining the floor, said: That 
it had not been his intention to say one word in favor of the 
passage of this bill. So far as he was concerned, he had in- 
tended to let its fate depend on the known wishes of the 
American People, and the express instructions of seventeen 
or eighteen of the sovereign States of this Union ; but chiefly 
on the resolutions of the Legislature of Louisiana, declaring, 
that if this fine was not refunded by Congress at the present 
session, the Legislature of that State would feel bound to re- 
fund it themselves — a noble resolution, reflecting everlasting 



ON REMITTING THE FINE ON GEN. JACKSON. 55 

honor on those who adopted it. But this bill had been oppos- 
ed by arguments so extraordinary, that he now felt it to be 
his duty, as one of the Representatives of Tennessee, to make 

reply to them. 

The gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Grider] had asserted, 
that if this bill were passed, General Jackson would never 
touch a dollar of the money. Is the gentleman sure of that? 
Why not, then, vote for this bill, and let it stand out as a bright 
and shining example of a nation's gratitude and justice? It 
would be cheap enough, I am sure, said Mr. B. to meet that 
gentleman's views of national economy. In one point of view, 
that gentleman was right. General Jackson would never receive 
this money as a mendicant at your door. He will never touch 
it if he must come here, according to the allusion once made 
on this floor by the gentleman from Massachusetts, [Mr. Adams] 
like the old Roman General, begging from door to door, hold- 
ing out his wooden trencher, and crying " Date obolitm Belis- 
arioP No, no. It is the amendment offered by his enemies 
that would bring the greatest General of our age, as Belisa- 
rius was of his, to this degrading attitude. This bill but re- 
turns to General Jackson his own money, extorted from him by 
a cruel and unjust Judge, for a noble and praiseworthy action. 
In this light General Jackson will receive it. He will receive 
it with pride and gratification. He will look upon it as the 
last act of his countrymen, paying homage to justice, and bear- 
ing testimony, for posterity, to the purity and patriotism of his 
motives. 

The same gentleman [Mr. Grider] contended that the glory 
of New Orleans would by tarnished by the passage of this bill; 
that it was a common glory, in which he and his constituents 
participated, and therefore he was opposed to passing the bill. 
Surely that gentleman, nor his constituents, would wish to take 
the glory, and keep the money too ! Ought he not rather to 
have concluded, that if the infamy of fining General Jackson 
one thousand dollars for achieving so much glory, should be 
considered by posterity as a common infamy, he and his con- 
stituents, if they refuse to refund, might be considered as par- 
ticipating in it? He was pleased further to remind us that we 
had assembled here for the purpose of general legislation, such 



5t> 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



as our constituents and the country now stood in need of. Why, 
said he. should we bring up this antiquated and almost forgot- 
ten subject — the fine of General Jackson, imposed almost thirty 
years ago? Surely the gentleman and his party do not mean 
to plead the statute of limitation? To plead it in the face of 
fourteen millions of the people of this country, who have com- 
manded this thing to be done? to plead it, too, against a great 
act of national justice and honor like this? Never, never, if 
you are really in earnest in claiming any share in the glory of 
that great man's achievements. 

Mr. Chairman, (said Mr. B.,) I now wish to advert to some of 
the extraordinary arguments of one of my colleagues, [Mr. 
Pevtox,] the honored Representative of the illustrious patriot 
who is the subject of this debate. What, sir, did he tell us? 
Why, that he should vote for this bill, but that it was the great- 
est humbug of the age. And will the gentleman really vote 
for a humbug? First put down the solemn declaration on the 
permanent records of the nation, to go down the stream of 
time to all future generations, that it is all a humbug, and yet 
that he is willing to vote for it! But how did he make it out 
a mere humbug? He said many fanciful things about the ivy 
twining around some sturdy pillar for support ; and the misle- 
toe drawing its nutriment from some majestic hickory; and, 
finally, more than insinuated, that the whole purpose of this 
bill was to advance the political fortunes of Martin Van Buren. 
How, then, can he vote for it? How can he vote for any bill 
brought forward for the purpose of advancing the fortunes 
11 of a mere parasite," whom he despises and abhors? No, 
my colleague docs injustice to the friends of this bill, and to 
the people of this country. Their purposes are open, direct, 
and avowed, to do justice to the man who exposed his life and 
his all in defence of his country, and was then fined one thou- 
sand dollars for it. They ask for the passage of this bill the 
unanimous vote of Congress — of all men, and of all parties; 
and it never would have been, never could have been a party 
measure, but for one of the parties of this country having met 
it with such fixed and never-dying opposition. That has 
made it, and may continue to make it, a party measure ; but 
let not that be charged to the friends of this bill. He com- 



ON REMITTING THE FINE ON GEN. JACKSON. 



57 



plained that the fame of General Jackson was not likely to be 
best preserved by those who had taken it in keeping. Would 
he have us to put it in the keeping of the enemies of this bill? 
Of the gentleman from Georgia, who had proposed to amend it 
by eulogizing Judge Hall? Of the gentleman from New 
York, or of Massachusetts, or even my colleague himself, after 
the speech he has made? God forbid that the good name and 
fame of General Jackson should be entrusted to such guardians 
as these. But my colleague says, that as those who set them- 
selves up to be the especial friends of General Jackson on this 
occasion desire it, he will vote for it, although, in his opinion, 
it will strike down the noblest monument of his fame. Can it 
be possible that the gentleman would really do that? Would 
he remove even the smallest pebble that lies at the base of 
that noble monument? Let him but convince the gentleman 
from New York [Mr. Barnard] and the gentleman from Mas- 
sachusetts [Mr. Adams] that such will be the effect of passing 
this bill, and they will instantly turn to its support, and become 
co-workers with my colleague in striking down that monument 
which, until now, I had fondly hoped was dear and sacred to 
every American bosom. 

Mr. Chairman, there is something strange and contradictory 
in the position of both my colleagues, [Messrs. Peyton and 
Dickinson,] in reference to this bill. They have both made 
speeches against, and yet declare that they mean finally to 
vote for it. Their speeches are one way, their votes are to be 
another. How is this anomaly to be accounted for? Sir, in 
making their speeches they have consulted their heads, but in 
casting their votes they have consulted their hearts — all the 
pulsations of which tell them to give back this ill-gotten money. 
I think, too, it may be accounted for on another principle. In 
the State of Tennessee, whatever divisions of opinion may 
exist on the great political questions of the day, there is every- 
where and amongst all classes, but one fixed, steady and im- 
movable sentiment of gratitude and devotion to the man " who 
has filled the measure of his country's honor." These gentle- 
men cannot, will not, I had almost said dare not, however in- 
sensible to fear, do violence to this universal sentiment. 
Mr. Chairman, I desire now to reply to the extraordinary 



58 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



speech of the gentleman from New York, [Mr. Barnard.] 
Extraordinary for its general bad temper. Why so hot and 
fiery on this occasion, and yet so cold, and even stoical, on all 
others? I fear the gentleman has grown jealous of the vener- 
ble gentleman who sits near him, [Mr. Adams,] and is deter- 
mined hereafter to outrival even him in turbulence and violence. 
Why, too, was the gentleman so nearly presumptuous, if not 
arrogant, in the language which he was pleased to employ on 
this occasion? Addressing himself to the known majority on 
this floor, some of them of his own party, he proclaimed we 
should not pass this bill ignorantly, or in our ignorance, or some 
such courteous language as that. Sir, have seventeen or 
eighteen States of this Union instructed this bill to be passed 
in ignorance? Are the people of this country, nine-tenths of 
whom are in favor of it, are they too, in ignorance? Is that 
overwhelming majority of this House, which the gentleman 
himself said he knew could and would pass the bill, were they 
about to do it in ignorance? I submit it to him whether there 
is not danger that those who do not know him personally — his 
great modesty — may be ungenerous enough to consider such 
language as presumptuous and even arrogant. 

But whilst adverting to the gentleman's manner and lan- 
guage, let me give you another specimen of that high courtesy in 
debate, which distinguishes an American statesman. Address- 
ing himself again to the known majority here, some of them 
his own party friends, he was pleased to say, " You cannot 
lick this bill into any shape that will make it acceptable to the 
other branch of Congress." How chaste and elegant, and even 
classical, is such language! " You cannot lick this bill into any 
shape!" But I pass from all this, to the matter and substance 
of that gentleman's speech. 

With great earnestness, he demanded to know why this fine 
was not remitted during the administration of General Jackson 
or of Mr. Van Buren. Let me answer him by putting to him 
another question : Would he and his party have voted for it 
at any time? Would the old Federal party have ever voted 
for it? Would those who refused to cross a State line, to meet 
and give battle to the enemy ; would those who, at midnight 
on the high dills of the ocean, hung out blue lights to guide the 



ON REMITTING THE FINE ON GEN. JACKSON. 



59 



enemy into our harbors, that they might burn our ships and 
murder our people ; would those who had been in secret con- 
ference with John Henry, the British spy, would they have 
voted for this bill at any time, or under any circumstances? No, 
sir, never. The glorious victory of New Orleans not only drove 
the British army from our coast, but, it drove a British spy 
from the bosom of our country. It not only suppressed the 
spirit of muntiny and revolt in a small portion of the people 
of Louisiana, but it routed and dispersed the more guilty 
traitors at Hartford. All these would have opposed the remis- 
sion of this fine at any and all times. They will oppose it now. 
They will resort to every device to defeat it. We cannot mould 
it, or, in the more elegant language of the gentleman from New 
York, we cannot lick it into any form which will induce them 
to do justice to the greatest captain and noblest patriot of the 



age. 



Well, Mr. Chairman, after all, what is the great constitu- 
tional argument of the gentleman against the passage of this 
bill? It is, that General Jackson had no right, under the Con- 
stitution, to declare martial law; that, consequently, he had no 
right to arrest Louallier ; and, having no right to arrest him, 
he was bound to obey the writ of habeas corpus, commanding 
him to bring the said Louallier before the court ; and for not so 
obeying, he was guilty of a contempt of court. 

Now, all this I deny, and maintain that, to the extent Gen- 
eral Jackson did declare and enforce martial law, he had a 
right to do it, under, or consistently with, the Constitution. 
Not that the Constitution commands martial law to be declared 
in any case, but that it permits, or allows it to be done, in pre- 
cisely such cases as occurred at New Orleans. That city and 
its environs were within the military encampment of General 
Jackson. His outposts and sentinels were planted around it. 
Within the bounds of every encampment, military, and not 
civil, law must prevail. In time of repose and safety, military 
law in its mildest, and lowest grade, but in time of war and 
invasion of the place so occupied, military law in its most rigor- 
ous form ; — high and rigorous in exact proportion as the 
peril was great and the danger imminent. This is the 
principle ; let me give you an illustration : A nation is 



60 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

about to be invaded ; you post your army at some moun- 
tain defile where you can more successfully repel his ad- 
vances. Within its lines are a few shepherds' huts. Can 
these go in and out as they please? Can they pass the senti- 
nels of your army without permission, and so carry, if they 
please, secret intelligence to the enemy? Cannot the Com- 
manding General guard against such danger, by suspending, 
for the time being, their constitutional right of locomotion? I 
do not say that he can by the command of the Constitution, but 
I maintain that he may by its permission. So if his encamp- 
ment include a village, or town, or great city, as was New 
Orleans. Let me now submit another case to illustrate my 
opinions : Suppose, during the siege, the owners of all the cot- 
ton bales, anticipating from his orders that he contemplated 
their use in the formation of breastworks, had applied to Judge 
Hall, or some State Judge, for an injunction to prevent their 
removal from the ware-houses, alleging that they were private 
property of such great value that the Commanding General's 
private fortune would be totally inadequate to the payment of 
their probable damage or destruction; suppose General Jackson 
to have refused obedience, as he assuredly would, and an at- 
tachment for contempt had been issued, returnable on the mem- 
orable 23d of December, the time of the first battle. On that 
day and within that encampment what law was to govern? The 
civil law which commanded him to be present in court, or the 
military law, which commanded him to be present on the 
lines, cheering and directing his army to triumph and to victory? 
Sir, in that case, or in any similar one, if the civil law was to 
govern, your Commanding General might have been pining 
in a dungeon for a contempt of court, whilst the enemy was 
thundering with its artillery against the city. 

But, sir, it matters not to pursue this question of constitu- 
tional right any further; for the gentleman expressly admitted 
that the right to declare martial law might be sustained in some 
cases under the great law of necessity. But I contend that in 
no case does the law of necessity abrogate the Constitution. 
It only rises above it, but yet stands consistent with it. How- 
ever this may be, still the admission of the gentleman goes the 
whole length of the vindication of General Jackson. It is under 



ON REMITTING THE FINE ON GEN. JACKSON. 61 

this law of necessity we may do many things not affirma- 
tively warranted by the Constitution, but yet entirely consistent 
with it. What right have I, affirmatively, under the Constitution, 
rudely to seize the gentleman from Ohio, (who has just closed his 
speech against this bill,) and rescue him by the hair of his head 
from a watery grave? What right have I, affirmatively, under the 
Constitution, to blow up my neighbor's dwelling with a train 
of gunpowder? Yet, if I do so, to arrest the progress of de- 
vouring flames, the law of necessity rises higher than the Con- 
stitution, but still consistently with it, and justifies the act. So 
to save a city from capture, or a nation from subjugation, we 
may go far beyond the express letter of the Constitution, and 
suspend many of the personal rights secured to individuals. 
No one has ever sustained this doctrine more ably than Mr. 
Jefferson. He says in one of his letters, vol. 4, p. 150, of his 
works, as follows: 

" The question you propose, whether circumstances do not sometimes oc- 
cur which make it a duty in officers of high trust to assume authorities be- 
yond the law, is easy of solution on principle, but sometimes embarrassing 
in practice. A strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the 
high duties of a good citizen ; but it is not the highest. The laws of ne- 
cessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of 
higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the 
written law itself, with life, liberty, property, and all those who are enjoying 
them with us : thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means. When, in 
the battle of Germantown, General Washington's army was annoyed from 
Chew's house, he did not hesitate to plant his cannon against it, although 
the property of a citizen. When he beseiged Yorktown, he levelled the 
suburbs, feeling that the laws of property must be postponed to the safety 
of the nation. While the army was before York, the Governor of Virginia 
took horses, carriages, provisions, and even men, by force, to enable that 
army to stay together till it could master the public enemy ; and he was 
justified. * * * * All these constituted a law of necessity and self- 
preservation, and rendered the salus populi supreme over the written law. 
The officer who is called to act on this superior ground does, indeed, risk 
himself om the justice of the controlling powers of the Constitution, and 
his statio* makes it his duty to incur that risk. * * * * It is incum- 
bent, however, only on those who accept great charges, to risk themselves 
on great occasions, when the safety of the nation, or some of its very 
highest interests, are at stake. An officer is bound to obey orders ; yet he 
would be a bad one who should do it in cases for which they were not in- 
tended, and which involved the most important consequences. The line of 



62 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



discrimination between cases may be difficult ; but the good officer is bound 
to draw it at his own peril, and to throw himself on the justice of his coun- 
try and the rectitude of his motives." 

These, sir, are the opinions of Mr. Jefferson, expressed in 
1810, and they go the whole extent of the principles on which 
we vindicate the conduct of General Jackson in declaring mar- 
tial law. How does the gentleman from New York escape 
from the force and power of such authority ? Simply by say- 
ing, that although the great law of necessity may, in some 
cases, authorize the exercise of such authority, yet in this case 
there was no sufficient or adequate necessity. No adequate 
necessity, sir ? When did General Jackson overrate any dan- 
ger impending over him, or the brave army he commanded ? 
What could have induced him to overestimate the dangers at 
New Orleans? Was he not on the ground? Could he not 
hear every discharge of the enemy's artillery? Could he not 
see every signal of his rockets, and every advance of his col- 
umns? What, then, could have led him to an exaggerated es- 
timate of the danger? Not the fears of General Jackson, I 
am sure ; for he had been born and had lived insensible to 
fear. There had never been a day nor an hour in his life 
when he might not have exclaimed, but for its excessive 



egotism — 



■Danger knows full well, 



That Caesar is more dangerous than he. 
We were two lions littered in one day, 
And I the elder and more terrible." 

The gentleman knows but little of the personal or military 
history of that great man if he supposes him capable of hav- 
ing been influenced by so ignoble a passion. 

This extraordinary position is attempted to be sustained, 
however, on another ground : that ~New Orleans and its envi- 
rons never were actually invaded — that the enemy, in other 
words, never did enter within its chartered boundaries. And 
why did he not? It was because General Jackson and his 
brave comrades met him on the lines, drove back his legions, 
routed and dispersed them, with a courage and a triumph that 
filled America with joy, and the world with admiration ! New 
Orleans and its environs were never actually invaded ! Well, 



ON REMITTING THE FIXE ON GEN. JACKSON. G3 

let the gentleman have it so. Let him have it that the enemy- 
was at the lines, but not within the lines of the city. Does he 
not know that if the enemy had once entered within the city, 
all would have been lost ? His fires would have been seen 
blazing from every steeple, and Ms artillery would have bat- 
tered down every public and private building. Then might you 
have realized the full import of their watchword, in the screams 
of American wives and daughters, under the rude grasp of a 
licentious British soldiery. Sir, I repeat it : if ever the enemy 
had once entered within the city, all would have been lost. 
Your heroic General and his brave officers would have been 
slain ; your noble army would have been captured or dispersed; 
your city would have been sacked and burnt, and the then 
young, but rising, and now mighty West, would have been 
ruined. Sir, I love the West. It is the land of my youth, and 
the home of my manhood. I love her lofty mountains, her wide 
luxuriant valleys, her deep majestic rivers. Need I say that I 
love, and honor, and cherish in my heart of hearts, that immor- 
tal man who saved and preserved them all ! To guard against 
a great and mighty calamity like this, he proclaimed martial 
law. Let me read to you his own eloquent exposition of the 
motives which impelled him to the act. It is to be found in 
his defence before an inexorable Judge, sitting in the very city 
he had just saved, and before he had left the scene of his tri- 
umph and glory : 

" In this crisis, and under a firm persuasion that none of these ohjects 
could be effected by the exercise of the ordinary powers confided to him ; 
under a solemn conviction that the country committed to his care could be 
saved by that measure only from utter ruin ; under a religious belief that he 
was performing 1 the most important and sacred duty, — respondent proclaimed 
martial law. He intended, by that measure, to supersede such civil powers 
as in their operation interfered with those he was obliged to exercise. He 
thought that, in such a moment, constitutional forms must be suspended 
for the permanent preservation of constitutional rights, and that there could 
be no question whether it were best to depart for a moment from the exer- 
cise of our dearest privileges, or have them wrested from us forever. He 
knew that, if the civil magistrate were permitted to exercise his usual func- 
tions, none of the measures necessary to avert the awful fate that threat- 
ened us, could be expected. Personal liberty cannot exist at a time when 
every man is required to become a soldier. Private property cannot be se- 
cured, when its use is indispensable for the public safety. Unlimited 



64 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

liberty of speech is incompatib le with the discipline of a camp ; and that of 
the press is the more dangerous, when it is made the vehicle of conveying 
intelligence to the enemy, or exciting mutiny among the soldiery. To have 
suffered the uncontrolled enjoyment of any one of those rights during the 
time of the late invasion, would have been to abandon the defence of the 
country. The civil magistrate is the guardian of those rights ; and the 
proclamation of martial law was therefore intended to supersede the exercise 
of his authority, so far as it interfered with the necessary restriction of 
those rights, but no farther.'''' 

Here, sir, is his own exposition of the pure and patriotic mo- 
tives — an exposition that ought to have softened down the 
heart of that "British inebriate," though that heart had been 
made of stone. Nothing, however, could move the inexorable 
Judge : he spurned the defence from the record, and the enor- 
mous fine of one thousand dollars was imposed on the saviuor 
of the city. It was excessive — it was enormous ; so excessive, so 
enormous, that it ought to be remitted. Here is common ground 
where all can stand. Here the gentleman from New York, from 
Massachusetts, from Kentucky, might stand ; common ground, 
where both my colleagues (Messrs. Peyton and Dickinson) might 
have stood, both in their speeches and their votes — the enormity 
of this fine. It equalled the net income of one whole year of 
General Jackson's resources. Whatever any man may think of 
his power to declare martial law, no man can doubt the purity of 
his motives. That purity should have disarmed the law of its 
vengeance, and wrapped its victim in the mantle of mercy, 
gratitude and honor. 

Mr. Chairman: I fear that much of the reluctance of gen- 
tlemen to the passage of this bill is to be found in the fact that 
this was a pecuniary punishment. Suppose, instead of a fine 
your Commanding General had been cast into the prisons of 
Louisiana. Suppose the same mail that brought you the news 
of that unparalleled victory had brought the news that your 
General was in a dungeon ; that whilst the brave army which 
he had commanded had returned home in safety and honor, its 
heroic commander was pining in prison for the very act which 
had closed the second war of Independence in a blaze of 
glory! How long, think you, would Mr. Madison, then Presi- 
dent of the United States, have permitted him to remain un- 
pardoned and unliberated from that loathsome condition. How 



ON REMITTING THE FINE ON GEN. JACKSON. 65 

long would it have been, before the Congress of the United 
States, then in session, would have interceded, if necessary, in 
his behalf? Sir, that whole Congress would have rushed from 
both ends of the Capitol, and gone in solemn procession to im- 
plore his instant liberation. Would the gentleman from New 
York [Mr. Barnard] have deserted from the lines of that pro- 
cession, and exclaimed, as he has now done, "We have a Con- 
stitution to preserve," and therefore let him rot in jail? Would 
the gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. Grider,] then have said, let 
him pine in his dungeon, because he and his constituents were 
entitled to their share of the glory of his achievements? Would 
my colleague, [Mr. Peyton] have travelled onward in a pro- 
cession whose object, if obtained, would strike down the no- 
blest monument of his glory, pluck the proudest feather from 
his war-plume, and dim the lustre of the brightest jewel that 
glitters in the coronet of his fame? Would the venerable gen- 
tleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Adams] have been seen then 
lingering far behind in that procession, and refusing to ask for 
the liberation of the man by whose defence on a previous oc- 
casion he had secured his warmest lodgement in the hearts of 
his countrymen? No, sir; there would have been no halting 
and hesitating in such a case in the Congress of 1815. All men 
of all parties — save only those who loved England, whose 
proud myrimdons he had conquered, more than they loved 
their own country — would have rushed to the Executive man- 
sion, and implored the liberation of General Jackson. His 
punishment by fine stands on the same principle as his pun- 
ishment by imprisonment. With the same patriotic ardor 
that the Congress of 1815 would have implored the remission 
of the one, the Congress of 1844 ought to remit the other. 

But the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Schenck] has just told us 
that this was not the right time; that, if done at all, it should 
have been done on the day when the fine was imposed. I fear, 
sir, the righttime will never come with him and his party friends, 
who evince such a never-dying opposition to this bill. Thirty 
years have now rolled over the memorable scenes of New Or- 
leans ; but they have neither dimmed the gratitude of his coun- 
try, nor softened down the malevolence of his enemies. This 

is the 8th of January, the day which he has rendered ever mem- 

G 



66 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

orable in the annals of his country; it is the very day on which 
this cruel and unjust judgment should be reversed — when this 
excessive and enormous fine should be remitted. He has ren- 
dered it illustrious by the noblest victory on record; let us ren- 
der it, if possible, still more illustrious, by a great act of national 
justice and honor. 



SPEECH, 

On the Correspondence of Mr. Webster with the British Minis- 
ter, in relation to the surrender of Alexander McLeod. Deliv- 
ered in the House of Representatives, July 9th and 10th, 1841. 



The following resolution being under consideration in the 
Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union : 

Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to inform 
this House, if not incompatible with the public service, whether any officer 
of the army, or the Attorney General of the United States, has, since the 
4th of March last, been directed tn visit the State of New York for any pur- 
pose connected with the imprisonment or trial of Alexander McLeod ; and 
whether, by any Executive measures or correspondence, the British Gov- 
ernment has been given to understand that Mr. McLeod will be released 
or surrendered ; and, if ao, to communicate to this House copies of the in- 
structions to, and report of, such officer. 

Mr. A. V. BroWx\, of Tennessee, addressed the House as 
follows : 

Mr. Speaker: I offer no apology for further discussion of 
this subject. It has not been discussed enough yet. It was 
not discussed enough last winter, when the British Government 
half confessed that she had invaded our soil, burnt our prop- 
erty, and murdered our people. She so nearly confessed it, 
that when her minister's letter was received, containing the 
impudent avowal " that the destruction of the Caroline was 
the public act of persons in her Majesty's service, obeying the 
orders of their superior authorities," this hall rung with indig- 
nation from one side of it to the other. 

The now chairman of the Ways and Means, and the present 
Postmaster General, both coming from the region of country 
where this outrage was perpetrated, made the most animated 
appeals to our sympathies and patriotism. 

But the cold suggestion was made then, as now, that the 



68 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECEES. 

negotiation was yet pending, and we must beware how we 
aroused the sleeping lion of English power. Soon afterward, 
the Committee on Foreign Relations submitted a report, rather 
spirited in its tone, commenting with some slight severity on 
British aggression and ambition ; when we were again admon- 
ished of her fleets and armies, and the ease with which she 
could reduce our towns and cities to ashes. 

These admonitions were effectual. Debate subsided; the 
first flashes of our indignation died away; and we ad- 
journed, half regretting that we had dared to debate the sub- 
ject at all. 

Sir, Lord Palmerston observed all and read all that was ut- 
tered in this hall ; and concluding, from the too cautious tem- 
per of that debate, that Mr. Forsyth would not be sustained in 
the lofty stand he had taken, determined at once to make a 
peremptory demand upon us — to appeal to our fears " of the 
serious consequences of a refusal." I hope in God that no 
action of this House, on this resolution, will ever confirm his 
degrading estimate of its disposition and determination to resist 
all foreign aggression at every hazard. 

It is time, high time, for us to speak out boldly, and without 
reserve. England's ministry have spoken the words of burning 
shame to the insulted honor of this country. One of her mem- 
bers of Parliament has even threatened to arm our slaves, and 
to excite all the Indian tribes against us. And shall an Amer- 
ican Congress be afraid to speak — afraid to call even for ne- 
cessary information — lest, peradventure, it should embarrass 
our future negotiations ? Sir, I am free to declare that I de- 
sire to embarrass all such negotiations as have been lately go- 
ing on. Were I the American Executive, my Secretary of 
State should never write another line in the way of negotiation, 
until England withdrew that degrading threat, which is yet 
hanging over my country, and which Mr. Webster has never 
had the heart to repel — all American as that heart is, according 
to the gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. Wise.] 

But, sir, can this call, by any possibility, embarrass future 
negotiation? It cannot, for the resolution on its face confers 
on the President a boundless discretion in giving or withholding 
the information. Besides, a large portion of the call relates 



ON THE McLEOD CASE. 69 

only to the mission of two of our own public officers to the 
State of New York, with whose instructions England should 
never have been made acquainted. But, instead of this, it is 
highly probable that the British Government knows all about 
them, whilst our own countrymen are profoundly ignorant on 
the subject. 

This mission was so extraordinary — so unlike any thing that 
had ever occurred under any former Administration, that cu- 
riosity alone might prompt us to inquire why a brave and gal- 
lant general of our armies had been sent off four or five hun- 
dred miles — not to meet and battle (as he had often and glori- 
ously done) the enemies of his country, but, strange to tell, to 
attend to a law-suit in court. Only think of it, sir; an old sol- 
dier, covered with his scars and his honors, sent out to assist 
the law officer of the Government to argue a demurrer to an 
indictment, or to file a plea to the jurisdiction of a county court. 
Heavens ! as the eloquent gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. 
Marshall,] would say, " what an immortal petrefaction" of 
human folly ! 

But, sir, to be serious. Was General Scott despatched to 
New York for any purpose connected with the trial of McLeod? 
And, if so, what could have been that purpose ? Was it to 
effect a release by the sword, if the Attorney General should 
fail to procure it by the purse? Such a purpose is incredible. 
What then ? Why, the most probable conjecture is, that Mr. 
Webster had learned, from some source or other, that McLeod 
was to be liberated at all events, and at every hazard, by the 
British authorities in Canada; that, in the event of a conviction, 
our soil was to be again invaded, our jail at Lockport to be 
pulled down or burnt like the Caroline ; and, if necessary, to 
shoot and sabre and murder our people, as they had done 
before ! 

Sir, I want to know all about this military expedition; and, 
if my conjecture should prove correct, then I want to know 
why Mr. Webster should feel so much sympathy for this Eng- 
lish subject, who inhumanly boasted that his sword was yet 
red with the blood of an American citizen, — why he should 
send him testimony and counsel, and render him every assis- 
tance in his power to escape justice and to elude the law. 



70 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

Surely Mr. Webster was under no obligation to the British na- 
tion so to volunteer his services in behalf of one of her subjects. 
That would make him more like a British consul than an 
American Secretary of State. From that hour (if not before) 
when Mr. Fox declared the approval of the burning of the 
Caroline, and the murder of her crew, by his Government, Mr. 
Webster should have said : " Then go and defend McLeod your- 
self; employ his counsel with your own or your nation's money; 
collect his testimony for him yourself; henceforth and forever 
I leave him to his fate, to answer to the insulted and violated 
laws of New York in the best manner he may." The more 
especially should he have said and acted in this manner, after 
those threats which I suppose to have given rise to General 
Scott's expedition to New York. 

But, sir, this whole mission has been marked, throughout, not 
more by the most morbid and misapplied sympathy, than by 
the novelty and inconsistency of the duties which it imposed on 
the Attorney General. It is the duty of that officer to prosecute, 
not to defend, criminals ; to give counsel to our President, and 
to the heads of departments — not to traverse the country for 
the release of foreign felons, who, at the dead hour of mid- 
night, by boats propelled by muffled oars, invade our territory, 
burn our property, and imbue their hands in better blood than 
ever flowed in English veins. 

Such are the duties of the Attorney General, as declared by 
the statute of 1789. What duties were assigned to him in this 
degrading mission — degrading to him who sent, and to him 
who was sent ? You may find them in page 25 of document 
No. 1. 

" The President is impressed with the propriety of transferring the trial 
from the scene of the principal excitement to some other and distant coun- 
. try. You will take care this be suggested to the prisoner's counsel. 

" Having consulted with the Governor, you will proceed to Loekport, or 
wherever else the trial may be holden, and furnish the prisoner's counsel 
with the evidence of which you will be in possession, material to his de- 
fence. You will see that he have skillful and eminent counsel, if such be 
not already retained ; and, although you are not desired to act as counsel 
yourself, you will cause it to be signified to him, and to the gentleman who 
may conduct his defence, that it is the wish of this Government that, in 
case his defence is overruled by the court in which he shall be tried, proper 



ON THE McLEOD CASE. 71 

steps be taken immediately for removing the cause, by writ of error, to the 
Supreme Court of the United States." 

You perceive, sir, that he was not to go as public, but as 
secret counsel — not to plead for McLeod himself, but to see that 
he had others, " skillful and eminent," to do so ; that he was to 
furnish him with testimony ; and, above all, in case of convic- 
tion, that it was the wish of the Government that the case should 
be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States ; that the 
prisoner's counsel was to be told that such was the wish of the 
Government. 

The defendant, it Avas supposed, might not feel sufficient 
anxiety to save his neck from the halter by appealing to a 
higher tribunal, and must, therefore, be encouraged to do so 
by the assurance that the Government wished him to do so. 

Mr. Attorney General is to signify to him that he had better 
appeal than die ! 

Mr. Speaker, I pause to ask if, after this, you can believe 
:hat wonders will ever cease? At all events, can you believe 
they are likely to cease during this life-preserving, felon-sav- 
ing branch of this Administration? I say nothing of its head, 
who had come in too unexpectedly, and was surrounded by too 
many perplexities at that period, to be presumed to have given 
much attention to this subject; but I speak emphatically of 
this branch of the Administration. 

Mr. Speaker, I wish now to call your attention to the remain- 
ing clause of this resolution, to wit: "whether the British 
Government has been given to understand that McLeod will be 
released or surrendered." 

It is probable that the President can give us but little more 
than the information contained in his message. I shall, there- 
fore, under that supposition, submit my views on the merits of 
the McLeod case, and the course pursued by the Secretary of 
State in the correspondence, as it now stands. 

To understand the merits of this case, and to judge of the 
propriety or impropriety of the course pursued by Mr. Webster 
in it, we must have a clear and distinct understanding of the 
facts. For these, I refer you to the speech of the honorable 
chairman of the Ways and Means at the last session ; to the 
statement of the case made by Mr. Webster himself; and, 



72 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

lastly, to a condensed and nervous statement of them in the 
other end of the Capitol, which has never been denied or con- 
tradicted there or on this floor. 

"This brings me to the case before us. What is it? The 
facts of the case are all spread out in official documents, and 
the evidence is clear and undeniable. An American steam 
ferry-boat traverses the Niagara river ; she carries passengers 
and property from one shore to the other. The English be- 
lieve (and perhaps truly) that she carries men and arms to the 
insurgents in Canada; and without any appeal to our Govern- 
ments, either State or Federal — without applying to us to put 
our own laws in force against her — an English officer, of his 
own head, without the knowledge of the British Government, 
determines to do — what? Not to watch the suspected vessel, 
arrest her in the fact, seize the guilty and spare the innocent; 
but to steal upon her in the night, board her asleep, and de- 
stroy her at the American shore, under the flag of her country 
In the evening of the meditated outrage volunteers are called 
for — fifty or sixty dashing, daring fellows — ready to follow their 
leader to the devil, — for that was the language used ; and it 
proves the expedition to have been a diabolical one, and wor- 
thy to be led as well as followed by demons. The arms were 
sabres and pistols ; the season of attack, midnight; the means 
of approach, light boats and muffled oars ; the progress slow,, 
silent, and stealthy, that no suspicious sound should alarm the 
sleeping victims. The order was death and no quarter. Thus 
prepared and led, they approach the boat in the dead of the 
night — reach her without discovery — rush on board — fly to the 
berths — cut, slash, stab, and shoot all whom they see — pursue 
the flying, and, besides those in the boat, kill one man at 
least upon the soil of his country, far from the water's edge. 
Victorious in an attack where there was no resistance, the con- 
querors draw the vessel into the midst of the current, set her on 
fire, and with all her contents — the dead, the living, the woun- 
ded, and the dying — send her in flames over the frightful catar- 
act of the Niagara. McLeod, the man whose release is deman- 
ded from us, was (according to his own declarations, made at 
the time in his own country, repeated since in ours, and accor- 
ding to the sworn testimony of one of the survivors) an actor 



ON THE McLEOD CASE. ?3 

in that piratical and cowardly tragedy. According to his own 
assertions, and the admission of his comrades, he was one of 
the foremost in that cruel work, and actually killed one of the 
' damned Yankees' (to use his own words,) with his own hands." 
— Mr. Benton's speech in Senate United States. 

Now, sir, on these facts, which it warms one's American 
blood to recite, can this band of merciless desperadoes be lia- 
ble to punishment under the laws of New York, where their 
crimes were perpetrated? To my mind, after the best exam- 
ination I have been able to give to the subject, there can be 
but one response. McLeod, one of the perpetrators, is answer- 
able, unless he can show that it was a public military expedi- 
tion, set on foot by the proper authorities in Canada, with or 
without a previous declaration of war against this country, 
commanding the specific things to be done for which he now 
stands indicted in the State of New York. I repeat — com- 
manding the specific things to be done for which he is indicted. 
In time of open public war, such authority would be presum- 
ed. The courts would look to the public acts, proclamations, de- 
clarations of war, and other proceedings of notoriety; and out 
of these would find immunity to the individuals engaged, 
whilst the Government would retaliate on the enemy by like 
incursions into their territory. But in time ol profound peace, 
with all subsisting treaty stipulations of amity in full force, no 
such presumptions can be resorted to. Express, positive, and 
unequivocal commands from competent authority are all that can 
justify him. Were such commands given? The whole case 
turns upon that fact. The case will turn on that fact in the 
courts of New York. The prisoner must come forward with 
the orders of Sir Francis Head, I believe then Governor Gen- 
eral of Canada. If not direct from him, he must show order 
from some military commander who issued them, and who re- 
ceived his orders from the supreme Colonial Government. 
Further back than that it would not be necessary, as I conceive, 
to trace the orders. If such orders covered and embraced the 
specific act for which he was indicted, the courts of New York 
will and ought to discharge him. But if the orders were gen- 
eral, " to break up the establishment at Navy Island," that 
would not do; or if they were "to destroy any vessel convey- 



74 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES, 

ing insurgents to or from the island," that would not do. If 
they were " to take any steps, and to do any acts, which might 
be necessary for the defence of her Majesty's territory, or for 
the protection of her Majesty's subjects," such orders would 
not do. They would not justify an invasion of our territory, nor 
the burning of a vessel lying peaceably moored to our own 
shores, with no military stores, and with no troops for trans- 
portation. No prior use of the boat and no prior conduct of 
her crew could justify the attack, because not essential " to the 
defence of British territory nor of British subjects." It might 
be an act of revenge for the past, but it could not be necessary 
for protection in future. 

In any event, capture without burning, capture without the 
murder of her crew, would surely have been all that could 
have been necessary. But, sir, when only ordered to defend 
British territory, they come at the dead hour of midnight and 
invade American soil ; when only ordered to protect British 
subjects, they shoot, and stab, and murder American citizens — 
instead, at most, of taking and towing the vessel over to the 
British side, and detaining her until the insurgents were ex- 
pelled from the island, they tow her out to the middle of the 
river, set fire to her, and thus commit to the flames the remain- 
ing portion of her crew, sending them and the blazing Avreck 
over the mighty falls of the Niagara. Sir, place yourself in 
that dark and bloody night, on the shore of that river, stand- 
ing proudly as you would do on American ground. In the 
stillness of that night, listen to the landing of hostile soldiers 
on our shores, to the attack on one of our vessels ; hear the 
groans of our dying countrymen : a moment after, look at that 
blazing sheet of fire, slowly moving on to the dreadful catar- 
act, till at last it makes its awful leap on the floods below. 

Sir, the waves of Niagara have extinguished the fires of that 
vessel — they have silenced forever the agonizing shrieks of her 
remaining crew ; but the cry of vengeance still comes up from 
her deep and agitated bosom, in tones louder than the thun- 
der of her own mighty cataract. I carry you back to that 
midnight scene — the tramp of British soldiers ; I point you 
to the dead bodies of your countrymen — to the blazing victim 
of the falls. Contemplating all the^e things, in the stillness 



ON THE McLEOD CASE. ? 5 

of that night, can your heart find one throb of approbation 
to the cold, unfeeling diplomacy — to the tame and ready sub- 
mission of the American Secretary of State? 

Submission to what ? I answer, first. To the impudent 
menace or threat of the British Government. Do you ask me 
what he should have done? I answer, that he should have 
stopped all negotiation at once — instantly have stopped it — 
until that menace was withdrawn. I answer further, that the 
least he should have done would have been, the moment the 
British Government avowed her approbatien of the act, he 
ought to have retorted her own language of peremptory de- 
mand of satisfaction, and to have flung back her own menace 
of the serious consequences of a refusal. This, sir, is the least 
he should have done on that proud and insulting occasion. 
What else should he have done? Answering at all, he should 
have said to Mr. Fox : Your avowal of this act by the British 
Government is vague y prevaricating and unsatisfactory. 

I ask your attention, and that of this House and nation, to 
the precise words of that avowal : 

" The grounds on which the British Government make this demand upon 
the Government of the United States are these : That the transaction on 
account of which Mr. McLeod has been arrested, and is to be put upon his 
trial, was a transaction of a public character, planned and executed by per- 
sons duly empowered by her Majesty's colonial authorities to take any 
steps and to do any acts which might be necessary for the defence of her 
Majesty's territories, and for the protection of her Majesty's subjects ; and 
that, consequently, those subjects of her Majesty who engaged in that 
transaction were performing an act of public duty, for which they cannot 
be made personally and individually answerable to the laws and tribunals 
of any foreign country." 

These are the precise words of the British minister. It is 
fair to presume that they are the precise words of the orders of 
Colonel McNab, under whom McLeod was acting. Well, sir, 
suppose these orders to be before us now, or before the courts 
of New York on the trial : will such orders cover the case 
of McLeod? Will they justify the burning of the Caroline, the 
invasion of our territory, and the murder of our people? Sure- 
ly not ; because these acts did not come within the scope of their 
orders or authority. They were only authorized or ordered to 
do such acts as were necessary for the " defence of her territory, 



76 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

and the protection of her Majesty's subjects." The things 
done, and for which he stands indicted, were for none of these 
purposes ; and they, therefore, stand without excuse or justi- 
fication, because they exceeded their authority. When is it that 
individuals by the law of nations, are exempted from municipal 
liability in such cases? It is only when the act done was by 
the command of the sovereign. Of course that command must 
precede the act, and must clearly and satisfactorily cover it. 
Sir, Vattel, nor Grotius, nor any other writer on the laws of 
nations, any where lays down the doctrine that subsequent ap- 
proval, without previous commands, would excuse the individual 
committing the crime. Such a doctrine would perish by its 
own absurdity. It is true that a subsequent approval may also 
involve the nation, and, in the language of the books, " make 
it a matter of public concern" — as it was, before that avowal, 
only one of individual concern. This, however, only adds 
another party to the controversy, without releasing the first. 
Hence it is said by Vattel, " if the offended State has in her 
power the individual who has done the injury, she may, with- 
out scruple, bring him to justice, and punish him." 

This case from Vattel is precisely the case of McLeod. He 
was, to say the best for him, but the servant, or agent, or sol- 
dier of the Canadian Government, ordered and sent to do one 
thing, to wit : to defend the British territory, and protect the 
British subjects ; but exceeding his authority — going beyond his 
orders — he invaded our territory, burnt our property, and mur- 
dered our citizens. He fled back to his own country; and, if 
he had remainded there, our only recourse would have been to 
demand him of the British Government. When demanded, if 
the British Government refused to surrender him, she would 
have made it a "public concern," and we might have looked 
to her for satisfaction for the refusal; not for the original act 
of her subject, but for the refusal; and the measure of satisfac- 
tion for that refusal would justly be, indemnity for losses sus- 
tained by the original act. But if, before, or pending, or sub- 
sequent to such a demand, the individual returns within our 
jurisdiction, we may hold him responsible for his transgression 
of our laws, and punish him accordingly. When that is done, 
the original offence is atoned for. No double satisfaction for 



ON THE McLEOD CASE. 77 

that can be demanded ; but we should be still at liberty to pro- 
ceed for the subsequent refusal, according to the circumstances 
of aggravation attending it. 

But, sir, I repeat, that nothing short of a previous order to 
do the specific act complained of, given by competent au- 
thority, can save McLeod in the courts of New York. No 
subsequent approval of it by the British Government can do it. 
McLeod will find it so on his trial ; and the American Secre- 
tary of State should have told the British Government so, and 
should have demanded the production of the original order, or 
a copy of it, so as to see precisely its extent and operation. 
And here is my highest objection to the conduct of our Secre- 
tary of State. He never had the fearlessness to say to Eng 
land, " Show me your order to this man or his leader ; show 
me that — its date, its every word — that my Government may 
see whether these crimes are yours or his. If yours, the courts 
of ~Ne\v York, in due season, will send him home unharmed 
and uninjured, whilst I will hold you instantly responsible for 
his conduct." 

This is what Mr. Webster, in my humble opinion, should 
have said and done. What did he say and do? He affects to 
see no distinction between a prior order and a subsequent ap- 
proval of the conduct of McLeod. In fact, he substitutes the 
latter for the former, and, with indecent haste, gives the British 
Government to understand that the claim of New York con- 
stituted the only difficulty in the way of an instant compli- 
ance with its demand. What more? Why he gives Mr. Fox 
a copy of his instructions to the Attorney General, and thereby 
informs him of the hasty and extraordinary means by which 
he was endeavoring to snatch McLeod out of the hands of 
New York, the only remaining obstacle to his surrender. 

Sir, Mr. Fox saw at once that his threat had told — the British 
ministry saw the same thing — the British Parliament saw it — 
and they are all now waiting in full assurance the heroes of 
Acre will have no opportunity to increase their laurels on the 
coast of America. 

But, sir, they may be mistaken after all. There is but one 
thing can save him on his trial. If indeed he were absent from 



<» CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

the scene of these outrages — if indeed he was no member of 
that ''public force," he will and ought to be acquitted. 

But the Supreme Court will require him, as Mr. Webster 
ought to have done, to produce the order under which the party 
acted. They will look closely to the extent of that order ; and 
if that order was exceeded, he must die. No subsequent ap- 
proval of the British Government can shield him — no over- 
sight of the American Secretary can set aside the strict and 
impartial administration of Justice. Die he must; and all 
the thunder of the British navy cannot frighten the American 
people from approving and applauding the sentence. 

If such should be the fate of McLeod, there remains but one 
question to be considered — and that is, one of peace and war. 
Will Great Britain feel bound and pledged to declare war 
against this country to avenge his death? Sir, England would 
never have thought of such a thing, but for the timid policy 
and unwise admissions of the Secretary of State. As it is, she 
may, and probably will, venture to appeal to that " ultima 
ratio regurn ;" and, sir, in the very declaration in which she ap- 
peals to arms, she will present the correspondence of our own 
Secretary to vindicate the act. She will spread it before all 
Europe as her justification, and will engrave it on the very 
banner under which she will march to the conflict. 

Mr. Speaker, it is to avert the horrors of war that this ap- 
parent severity of remark on the course of the Secretary has 
been indulged in ; and, if it must come, we wish to rescue the 
country from the imputation of having induced it, by having 
too tamely surrendered the rights of our citizens. 

It is not too late yet for Mr. Webster to review the fatal ad- 
missions he has made, and to place this correspondence on a 
more elevated and more defensible foundation. If no ex- 
hortation on this floor can prevail with him, let him learn it 
from Lord Palmerston himself. Let him learn it in the reply 
of that nobleman to Lord Stanley in the British Parliament 
on the 9th of February, 1841. On that occasion he stated: 

" With regard to the ground taken by Mr. Forsyth, in reply to Mr. Fox, 
I think it right to state that the American Government undoubtedly might 
have considered this transaction either as a transaction to be dealt with be. 
tween the two Governments, by demands for redress by one to be granted 



ON THE McLEOD CASE. 79 

or refused by the other, and dealt with accordingly : or it might have been 
considered, as the British authorities consider proceedings between Ameri- 
can citizens on the British side of the border, — as matter to be dealt with by 
the local authorities. 

" But the American Government chose the former course, by treating this 
matter as one to be decided between two Governments ; and this is the 
ground on which they are entitled to demand redress of the British Gov- 
ernment for the act of its subjects ; and from that ground they cannot be 
permitted to recede." 

Sir, here is an admission of our original right to seize and 
punish McLeod, infinitely stronger than is any where asserted 
by Mr. Webster; — an admission but little weakened by the 
sophistry which seeks to show that this original right had been 
lost by an appeal to the British Government for redress. That 
redress has never been granted — nay, it has not even been 
promised ; and, therefore, upon every known principle this 
Government stands remitted to her original right to punish 
McLeod whenever she can get hold upon him. She has him 
now. She recurs to that admitted original right, notwithstand- 
ing its surrender by Mr. Webster. 

I wish now to refer to another speech of Lord Palmerston, 
in reply to Mr. Hume in the same debate. He said : 

" With regard to Mr. Forsyth's letter, I beg leave to say that the princi- 
ple stands thus : In the case of the American citizens engaged in invading 
Canada, the American Government disavows the acts of those citizens, and 
states that the British authorities might deal with them as they pleased, 
and that they were persons who were not in any degree entitled to the pro- 
tection of the United States. But in the other case they treated the affair 
of the Caroline as one to be considered as that of the Government, and not 
to be left on the responsibility of individuals. Until, therefore, the British 
Government disowned those persons, as the American Government disa- 
vowed their citizens in the other case, they would have no right to change 
their ground on the question." 

Now, sir, observe the position taken in this last extract by 
Lord Palmerston. Until the British Government disown the 
persons who made the attack on the Caroline, they were not 
to be treated as the British authorities treated the Americans 
taken on the Canada side. And how was that ? By making 
them responsible to the local authorities. And why not treat 
them on both sides alike ? Because we have not disowned our 
people, say they, as you have done yours. But if you have 



80 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

not disowned them, have you ever owned them, or acknowledged 
their acts to be yours ? No, never. 

For two years we demanded of the British Government to 
say whether it did or did not disown these persons ; but she ut- 
terly failed during all that time to say whether she did or not. 
In the mean time, whilst she is standing mute and will notutter 
a single word either way, McLeod returns to the United States, 
impudently brags of his exploits in the affair, is arrested, and 
confined for trial. Up to this time, we could not get England 
to say a word on the subject; but now she comes very suddenly 
to her speech. One of her felon subjects is about to get the 
rope around his neck, and she speaks up at once with full vol- 
ubility. Is she entitled to her demand? Is she entitled to take 
our people on her side of the border, and hang them up at the 
yard-arm or shoot them like dogs ; whilst her people, taken on 
our side, with their hands yet reeking with the blood of our 
fellow-citizens, may stalk, and strut, and vapor through our 
land, with utter impunity? 

Sir, Mr. Webster virtually says all this may be done. He 
virtually surrenders the rights and privileges of our border citi- 
zens, and lays them exposed to every marauding expedition 
that may be set on foot against them in Canada. But, sir, 
were this the last public act of my life, I would protest against 
his doctrines, and appeal from his decisions. 



SPEECH, 

On the Tariff, delivered in the House of Representatives, 

June 18, 1842. 



The House having resolved itself into Committee of the Whole, and the 
bill reported by the Committee of Ways and Means, and that by the 
Committee on Manufactures, together with the amendment offered to the 
latter by Mr. Habersham, being under consideration — 

Mr. A. V. Brown addressed the Committee as follows : 
Mr. Chairman: I have searched most diligently for some 
redeeming virtue in the two bills reported by the committees, 
which might so far reconcile me to their provisions as to ex- 
cuse any participation on my part in their discussion. But I 
have searched in vain. I can find nothing — literally nothing 
—to rescue them from the deepest and most unmitigated ab- 
horrence. They both seek to revive the odious principle of 
direct protection, and to repudiate the most solemn and sacred 
covenant ever entered into since the formation of the Federal 
Constitution. But I mean to speak only to one of these bills — 
to the one reported by the Committee on Manufactures. That, 
sir, is the one which the dominant party in this House mean 
finally, by the mere power of numbers, to force upon the peo- 
ple of this country. I will not speak to the Ways and Means, 
for they would not speak to their own bill — having thrown it 
upon the House, without any report illustrating its principles, 
or explaining its details. They seem to have gotten it up on 
the spur of the occasion, and to rely on nothing for its support 
but the enormity of its exactions, and the poor device which 
they have labelled on its front — that it is a bill/or the raising of 
revenue. 

Mr. Chairman, by the act of 1833, all the duties above twenty 
per cent., by whatever law imposed, were brought down to 
that amount; and, by the act of 1841, all duties below twenty 



82 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

per cent, were raised to that rate, with the exceptions contained 

in the act. 

By these two acts, we have a full, complete, and perfect 
tariff system, for the supply of the treasury, without further 
legislation on the subject. Hence it is that I assume the posi- 
tion, that beyond the correction of the error of last session, in 
regard to the list of free articles, and the enactment of a few 
obvious provisions in relation to home valuation, we ought to 
have nothing to do with this delicate and exciting subject. To 
take it up for thorough revisal, and the establishment of a 
higher rate of duty, I hold to be an act of legislative perfidy, 
which can find no parallel in the history of this country. To 
no member here can it be necessary to refer to the fierce col- 
lision of parties on the tariffs of 1810, 1824, and 1828. It is 
enough to say that, in every conflict, the doctrine of protection 
was victorious. What sort of protection? Was it only inci- 
dental ? or was it claimed as a distinctive and independent 
principle of the Constitution? Let the father of the whole 
system tell you. Hear him who, in 1833, informs us that he 
had cherished it with paternal fondness, and that his affections 
even then (though he had been compelled to abandon it) were 
undiminished. Replying to Mr. Webster, who was then sepa- 
rating from him on the compromise act, he says : " all that 
was settled in 1816, in 1824, and in 1828, was, that protection 
should be afforded by high duties, without regard to the amount 
of the revenue they would yield." Mark the emphatic admis- 
sion of Mr. Clay — "protection without regard to revenue." It 
was on this very ground that all three of these acts had been 
so warmly opposed ; but yet there was no declaration on their 
face that such was their object. The doctrine dared not to 
show itself there, lest the judicial tribunals of the country 
should pass sentence of condemnation upon it. No, sir ; it 
skulked behind the revenue power, meanly evading the just and 
manifest principles of the Constitution. Such a device could 
not long be sustained, nor its enormous exactions endured. It 
disquieted and almost convulsed the country. It filled the land 
with apprehensions of ruin and disaster on the one hand, and 
civil war on the other. It became so abhorrent to the Ameri- 
can people, "that he who had sustained it with paternal fond- 



ON 'THE TARIFF. 83 

ness," could sustain it no longer. He came forward with the 
compromise act of 1833. He declared that the American sys- 
tem of protection must go down. He saw it in the deadly 
blows which President Jackson was dealing upon it — he saw it 
in the solemn protestations of every southern State in the Union 
■ — he saw it in the determined spirit of resistance in South Car- 
olina — and, more than all, he both saw and felt it in the then 
recent elections, which had all gone against him and his friends. 
Under this thorough conviction, (so thorough, that no argument 
of Mr. Webster, his great compeer in establishing the system, 
could shake or remove it,) Mr. Clay came forward with the 
compromise. 

1 pause here, Mr. Chairman, in order that you may consider 
the position of the two great parties of this country at that 
eventful moment. The one was insisting on the permanent 
continuance of the protective system; the other was boldly 
demanding its instant repeal and total abandonment. Now, 
the compromise was to reconcile these hostile parties — to find 
some middle ground on which both could stand, and the Union 
be preserved. Mr. Clay himself remarked on the occasion : 
" I am anxious to find out some principle of mutual accom- 
modation, to satisfy, as far as practicable, both parties ; to in- 
crease the stability of our legislation ; and, at some distant 
day, (but not too distant, when we take into view the magni- 
tude of the interests which are involved,) to bring down the 
rate of duties to that revenue standard for which our opponents 
had so long contended." 

Here, sir, is an open and distinct avowal of the objects and 
purposes of the compromise. That it was intended by him to 
be a permanent settlement, not of the details, but of the great 
principles of the future tariff legislation of the country, I refer, 
for farther illustration, to his arguments addressed to his man- 
ufacturing friends in favor of its adoption : 

" The must that can be objected to the bill by those with whom he had 
<co-operated to support the protective 6ystern was, that, in consideration of 
nine and one-half years of peace, certainty, and stability, the manufacturers 
relinquished some advantages which they now enjoy. What was the prin- 
ciple which had always been contended for in this, and in the other House J 
That, after the accumulation of capital and skill, the manufacturers woujd 
be able to stand alone, unaided by the Government, in competitijn with 



84 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES, 

the imported articles frcm any quarter. Now, give us time ; cease all fluc- 
tuations and agitations for nine years ; and the manufacturers, in every 
branch, will sustain themselves against foreign competition. If we can see 
our way clearly for nine years to come, we can safely leave posterity to 
provide for the rest. If the tariff be overthrown, (as may be the case at 
the next session,) the country will be plunged into extreme distress and 
agitation. I (said Mr. Clay) want harmony; I wish to see the restoration 
of those ties which have carried us triumphantly through two wars ; I de- 
light not in this perpetual turmoil. Let us have peace, and become once 
more united as a band of brothers." 

Sir, I have made these extracts and references in order to 
remind this House, and this country, of the true object and 
extent of this compromise. It was accepted. When he, [Mr. 
Calhoun,] who had as strenuously opposed, as Mr. Clay had 
supported the system, rose up in his place in the Senate chamber 
and accepted it, the galleries responded in tumultuous appro- 
bation. The whole nation responded with joy and acclama- 
tion. The assent of Congress, and the approbation of the 
President, soon crowned this noble act of concession on both 
sides, and the process of reduction commenced. It has pro- 
gressed through all the stages of the law, until we are now 
within a few days of its entire completion. Yes, sir; and 
when the 30th of this month shall have arrived, the whole 
South and Southwest can rise up as one man, and proudly 
boast that, although their burdens were great, and the process 
of alleviation slow and tedious, yet they have adhered to the 
covenant, not only in the spirit, but to the very letter of it. 

But, sir, when that day shall come, and this bill shall have 
been passed, what can the North say? Can she point to the 
same preservation of her plighted faith in vestal purity and 
honor? No. I repeat, if this bill be passed, she can do no 
such thing. The bill itself would wring from her inmost soul 
the reluctant confession, that she had adhered to the compro- 
mise only whilst it was profitable, and cast it off the moment 
when the other party was to have entered on its enjoyment. 

The present distinguished Governor of Massachusetts seems 
to have contemplated the possibility of something of this 
sort. 

" Suppose, then," (said he, in the House of Representatives,) " that 
South Carolina should abid« by the compromise, whilst she supposes it 



ON THE TARIFF. 85 

beneficial to the tariff States and injurious to her; and when that period 
shall close, the friends of protection shall then propose to re-establish the 
system : what honorable man who votes for this bill would sustain such a 
measure ] Would not South Carolina say, You have no right to change 
this law — it was founded on compromise ; you have had the benefit of your 
side of the bargain, and now I demand mine? Who could answer such a 
declaration ! If, under such circumstances, you were to proceed to abolish 
the law, would not South Carolina have much more just cause of complaint 
and disaffectiun than she now has 1" 

"What Governor Davis, then a Representative in Congress, 
said and asked in relation to South Carolina, might have been 
said and asked of all the other anti-tariff States. It was no 
compromise between individuals — it was one between large 
sections of the Union. It was a compromise between oppo- 
sing interests ; and neither can abandon it with honor, until 
each has enjoyed it for at least an equal period of time. Sir, 
I repeat, (because the sentiment has left an indelible impres- 
sion on my mind,) that the North cannot repudiate this con- 
tract, after having pocketed millions upon millions under it. 
Mr. Clay himself, whatever he may do now, could not then 
submit to the degrading anticipation. In the speech which 
ushered the compromise act before the world, he said : 

" But if the measure should be carried by the common consent of both 
parties, we shall have all security. History will faithfully record the trans- 
action — narrate under what circumstances the bill was passed ; that it was 
a pacifying measure ; that it was as oil poured from the vessel of the Union, 
to restore peace and harmony to the country. When all this was known, 
what Congress, what Legislature would mar the guaranty ? What man, 
who is entitled to deserve the character of an American statesman, would 
stand up in his place, in either House of Congress, and disturb the treaty 
of peace and amity J" 

Mr. Chairman, I know not how this bill can escape the stern 
and withering rebuke contained in these extracts, but by the 
denial that it does revive the protective system, so distinctly 
and solemnly renounced by the compromise. True, it is not 
expressly revived, in terms, on the face of the bill. Its advo- 
cates, like those who originally established it, are too sagaci- 
ous thus to label its unconstitutionality on its front. Like 
them, they hide its protective character from judical detection. 
Still, sir, no man can doubt the fact, who will look either at the 
origin of the bill, the evidence on which it was prepared, or the 



86 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECEES. 

rate of duties it establishes. I propose to examine and test 
it in all these particulars. 

In the first place, it was prepared and reported by the 
Committee ' on Manufactures and not by the Committee 
of Ways and Means. It is the peculiar business of the 
latter committee to look after the condition of the treasury, 
and to see that it is kept in condition to meet all the appropria- 
tions made by law ; but the Committee on Manufactures, 
as its very name imports, has no such duties assigned to it. 
Its whole structure, for a long series of years, evinces no pur- 
pose connected with the revenues of the country. Look at the 
constitution of the present committee. Massachusetts has one, 
Vermont one, New York one, New Jersey one, Pennsylvania 
one, and even little Rhode Island one ; whilst there were only 
three from the whole Union beside. Now, sir, why this amaz- 
ing disproportion in favor of the Northern States? Evidently be- 
cause they were manufacturing States, deeply interested in the 
deliberations of the committee. The States of Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama, were agricultural 
States, and therefore were supplied only with two members; 
whilst the whole West — all the ten or twelve States lying on the 
majestic Mississippi and its noble tributaries — had only one 
member of the committee. No one here, I hope, will be so un- 
gracious as to suppose that the Speaker ever constituted such 
a committee with the slighest reference to the raising of reve- 
nue. No, sir, the Speaker could never have had such purpose. 
But the tariff party of this House, ever watchful of such things, 
looked over the committees, after their appointment, and found, 
in the structure of that on manufactures, one more favorable 
to their views than the Committee of Ways and Means. 

By the closest concert of action, they wrested the President's 
message from the Committee of Ways and Means, to whom it 
rightfully belonged, and transferred it to the Committee on 
Manufactures. So much for the geographical structure of the 
committee. I now ask, upon whose and what sort of evi- 
dence was this bill prepared? Was it on the oral or written 
statements of the Secretary of the Treasury, of the wants and 
condition of the treasury now, or for years to come? No, sir; 
we heard not a word from him. Was any witness called, or 



ON THE TARIFF. 8 7 

statement received, on the subject? Not one. Even the re- 
port of the majority of the committee glances but slightly over 
the subject of revenue, barely saying enough about it to save 
even a decent appearance. Sir, the information on which 
this bill was prepared, was derived wholly from the manufac- 
turers — several of them the same persons who were here in 
1828. The majority of the committee have complained of 
the House on the subject of testimony. I now complain of 
them. The House refused to give them the power to send for 
witnesses: they determined they would have them without 
sending after t^epfi". ' The House refused to give them power 
to qualify witnesses^ .in the case : they determined tt> take their 
testimony' without oath. Nay, more : the House amended 
their application, by saying that none but disinterested wit- 
nesses shouM be examined, and then laid their proposition, so 
amended, on the table. In the face of this soleuiU' decision of 
the House — made by ayes and noes — the majority of the com- 
mittee determined they would examine witnesses directly in- 
terested in the case— men whose daily bread or annual profits 
on their capital depended on the answers which they were 
to give. Was anything like this ever heard of in the proceed- 
ings of any of the courts of this country — to receive testi- 
mony from those directly interested? Sir, it was never before 
heard of in any investigation where truth was to be obtained, 
or justice to be administered. Let me not be told — as I was 
on a former occasion, when I had no opportunity to reply — 
that none can know the facts as well as the manufacturers 
themselves. True ; and it often happens that no one knows 
some material fact so well as the plaintiff or defendant in a 
cival action : and yet you would never examine either of them 
to prove such fact in his own favor. So, in criminal cases, 
none know the facts as w r ell as the culprit himself; but yet you 
never examine him on trial for his own justification. But I go 
beyond these analogies, and maintain that this country is filled 
with persons who have discontinued or retired from manufac- 
turing establishments, or who are otherwise well-informed and 
impartial on all the subjects within the range of our investiga- 
tion. So far from having called on such as these, not a single 



88 



CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



person whose statement was received is now recollected, who 
was not deeply interested. 

Here, then, are two important facts, that six out of nine of the 
committee were from manufacturing - States ; and the testimony 
on which the bill was constructed, furnished by interested 
manufacturers, who have voluntarily left their homes, and 
travelled great distances for that purpose alone. And from 
both of them I infer that the protection of manufactures was 
the controlling consideration in the preparation of this bill. 
But, sir, I will now look into the bill itself for intrinsic evidence 
of the fact. We have the evidence of Mr. Clay himself, that 
" all that was settled in 1816, 1824, and 1828, was, that pro- 
tection should be afforded by high duties, without regard to 
revenue." Now, test this bill by that of 1828, and see what a 
vast number of articles are now to pay the same duty as in 
1828, or so nearly the same as not to change the protective 
character of the duty. 

I will present you with the following list of comparative 
duties : 





October, 18 


28. 


Present bill. 


Cloths and cassimeres, 33) 


.,' to 45 per cent. 


40. cts. 


sq. yard. 


on 


various minima. 






Other woollen manufac- 










tures ... 


same 




40 


do. 


Flannels and baizes 


14 sq. 


yard. 


14 


do. 


Clothes ready made 


50 per 


cent. 


50 


per cent. 


Brown sugar 


3 cts. 


f a 


2 


cts. V ft 


Lead, pig, 


3 


do. 


2K 


do. 


Cordage, tarred - 


5 


do. 


5 


do. 


Copper, rods and bolts - 


4 


do. 


4 


do. 


Iron, cables and chains - 


3 


do. 


2 


do. 


anchors 


2 


do. 


2 


do. 


nails 


5 


do. 


4 


do. 


anvils 


2 


do. 


2 


do. 


castings 


lH 


do. 


iK 


do. 


sheet or hoop 


3K 


do. 


*% 


do. 


Shoes, silk 


30 cts. 


pr pair. 


25 cts. 


per pair. 


prunella 


25 


do. 


20 


do. 


leather 


25 


do. 


20 


do. 


Boots andbootees 


$1 50 


do. 


$1 25 


do. 



To this list might be added a great number of other articles 



ON THE TARIFF. 



89 



which are taxed at rates precisely the same as by the act of 
1828, or so nearly the same as to leave no doubt that this bill, 
in its general structure, is highly protective. I bog leave to 
present another short statement, which, I think, can scarcely 
fail to convince the most skeptical. 

Table of duty per cent, on certain articles of British manufacture, calculated 
upon thi cost of manufacture, according to the tariff of 18'J8, 1832, 1833. 



. — , 1 










5H 












to 


ci ■ 
o -a 






-3 

03 


oo 

00 


c4 

CO 
00 

I-H 


CO 
00 

I-H 


O c 






u 


i-H 

o 


t*H 
o 


t— 1 

O 


C- 3 

E^ 


CO 




Oh 


fe 


fe 


?s 


o 




+J 








o u 


Oh 




OQ 


'm 


'£ 


*(H 


,*J 


Q 




o 


3 


e3 


d 




>h 




o 


Eh 


EH 


JH 


o, 


Sheetings 


6 cs. 


145 


125 


112* 


20 


120 


Checks 


8 


109 


109 


100 


20 


100 


Calicoes 


12 


72 


72 


66 


20 


55 


Flannels 


15 


150 


106 


871 


20 


100 


Baizes 


25 


90 


64 


66 


20 


100 


Kerseymeres 


$1 25 


90 


50 


47 


20 


70 


Bar iron per ton 


38 40 


100 


112 


88 


20 


100 


Coal, do 


2 40 


50 


50 


69 


20 


75 



Mr. Chairman, what plea or apology can be offered for such 
a wanton breach of the compromise, as I think these tables es- 
tablish? In the first place, it is said that without the propos- 
ed increase of duties beyond the rates agreed on in 1833, some 
of the manufactories cannot exist at all, whilst others can- 
not realize reasonable and satisfactory profits without it. In 
reply, I do not hesitate to say that some of them ought to go 
down. One of the crying evils of this manufacturing system 
is, that nothing can be attempted in foreign countries which is 
not soon essayed to be imitated here. No matter what it 
might be — however unsuited to our condition — it must be tried, 
under the favorite principle, that if it be found that it cannot 
succeed in this country by its own merits, we have only to in- 
sert a new clause in the tariff bill for its protection, and thereby 
make it a profitable concern It were better, far better, for 
our countrymen to betake themselves to the substantial and 
useful branches of manufacturing, which can and will succeed 
by their own intrinsic importance, rather than be running after 



90 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

the many useless and silly inventions of the Old World. Let 
me give you an example. Some years ago, the manufacture 
of patent steel pens was commenced abroad, where it might 
have been, probably, well enough. But straightway some of 
our Yankee friends took it into their heads that they could 
carry on the same business here. Well, away they went at it, 
and succeeded in making quite a superior article ; they mo- 
nopolized, for awhile, all the common-school patronage of the 
Northern States. Presently, however, the foreign article began 
to come in cheaper in price, and quite as good for use, superse- 
ding, in a great degree, those manufactured here at a much 
higher cost. All this has been of recent occurrence; and, ac- 
cordingly, at the present session, we had before the committee 
the American manufacturer begging for protection against the 
foreign article ; in other words, asking Congress to impose a 
tax on all the poor and orphan children of those States for his 
benefit. Sir, it would have been better for those children to 
have raised, by contribution, a sufficient sum to buy out this 
man's establishment, and to have cast it into the Hudson, than 
for Congress to have granted his petition. If a mechanical 
business of no more importance to the country than that, can- 
not support itself without the aid of unjust and excessive tax- 
ation, let it go down; and let those engaged in such betake 
themselves to agriculture, to commerce, or to other mechanical 
employments of greater importance. I could furnish many 
such cases — all showing a strong inclination to avoid the more 
laborious pursuits of life, and to resort to every light and trivial 
handicraft, whether the situation of the country, or the price of 
labor, will justify it or not. 

Mr. Chairman, let us not lose sight of the precise objections 
to the rate of duties established by the compromise act, which 
we are now considering. I entertain no hostility to the manu- 
factories of the United States. I cherish, for the valuable and 
important ones, the very highest regard; but the light and fri- 
volous ones I am willing to see go down to-morrow. There are 
more noble and invigorating employments, throughout this 
broad land, for all who may be engaged in such. But to the 
important ones, I will cheerfully give all the incidental advan- 
tages which the collection of the national revenue can bestow. 



OX THE TARIFF. 91 

Such incidental encouragement is given by the compromise, 
and, I contend, is entirely sufficient to sustain the chief manu- 
facturing interests of this country — such as the woollen, the 
glass, the leather, the cotton, the iron, &c. 

That act allows three distinct points of incidental pro- 
tection : 

1st. It imposes a duty of 20 per cent, ad valorem, or on the 
value of the goods imported. 

2d. It provides that that value shall be fixed in reference to 
our own markets, instead of those of foreign countries, as 
was the case before the compromise. 

3d. That the duties shall be paid down in cash, instead of 
being secured by bond, on a credit, as formerly. 

This is the rate of duties, and the extent of protection, for 
which I contend, and those with whom (with few exceptions) I 
am politically acting. We find this rate of duties already ex- 
isting and established by law — a law intended, by those who 
established it, to be fixed and permanent ; a law which he who 
proposed it [Mr. Clay] denominated " a treaty of amity and 
peace;" which no man, who was entitled to deserve the char- 
acter of an American statesman, would dare stand up in either 
House of Congress and disregard. 

Now, sir, as to the ability of the manufacturing establish- 
ments to sustain themselves at the rate of duties which we are 
insisting on. 

The rate of twenty per cent, ad valorem on the home valua- 
tion, including something for cash duties, I estimate as equiva- 
lent, at the least, to twenty-five per cent. 

For illustration: An article is purchased in Liverpool at a 
cost of $100. Bat the same article, when brought to this coun- 
try, may be fairly worth $120. Now the duty is not to be laid 
on the $100, its cost abroad ; but on the $120, its value here — 
making a difference in favor of the manufacturers of four per 
cent. Making some little allowance, also, for the payment in 
cash, instead of credits, I assume twenty-five per cent, as the 
actual rate or degree of protection incidentally afforded by the 
compromise act. In the allowance of twenty per cent, as the 
difference between the foreign and home valuation, I estimate 
transportation, insurance, &c, to be equal to about ten per 



92 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

cent.; and the other ten are allowed for profits. The question, 
then, recurs — is this duty of twenty-five per cent, a sufficient 
protection to enable the manufacturers to sustain themselves? 

Sir, it must be, at the first blush, exceedingly strange if they 
can not. What ! not keep up, when the Government grants 
them an advantage of one-fourth over all foreign competition ! 
Not keep up, when the Government turns every $4,000 of their 
products into $5,000 ; every $40,000 into $50,000 ; and every 
$80,000 into $100,000! for that is precisely the effect of the duty 
imposed on the foreign producer. Still, however, great as this ad- 
vantage is, the statements laid before the committee insist that, if 
the compromise act (equal, as I have stated, to twenty-four or 
twenty-five percent.) shall go into effect, most, if not all, of our 
manufactories must go down. Mr. Chairman, I am free to de- 
clare that I do not believe these statements. They are made 
by men deeply and directly interested — whose wealth or poverty 
was at stake ; made without any sanction of an oath, and 
with no direct responsibility whatever. Manufacturing, like 
almost everything else, has been over done. The high and 
exorbitant protection of former times has induced too many to 
rush into the business; and, on this account, I dare say, many 
establishments will have to go down — not for the want of ad- 
equate protection, but for want of real capital originally. All 
the moneyed fictions of the day are now vanishing, and none 
but the real, substantial capitalists can stand the shock. 
Even some who had such capital, have lived in such luxury, or 
so disregarded the wholesome suggestions of a prudent econo- 
my, that they must and will be compelled to go down. So it i3 
with all the other pursuits of life. Like causes of imprudence 
and extravagance have ruined them in like manner. But I 
do firmly believe that our woollen, cotton, iron, glass, leather, 
and all our important manufactories, can be sustained at a 
duty of 24 or 25 per cent.; all, certainly, that are located un- 
der favorable circumstances, and are conducted with that in- 
dustry and rigid economy which characterized this country be- 
fore the late inundation of extravagance, speculation, and folly. 
None of them may realize the same extent of profit as former- 
ly; but they must be content with less : all our occupations 
must be content with less. The farmers, graziers, and plan- 



ON THE TARIFF. 



93 



ter3,liave long since become content to realize 3, 4, or 5 per 
cent, on their investment in land, stock, laborers, &c. If, 
however, 25 per cent, will not do, rather than increase the duty 
on the consumer, and thereby add to the burdens of those who 
are already sufficiently prostrated, I would recommend the 
suggestion contained in the minority report : 

" The valuable principle of our Government is equal rights and equal 
protection to all. If you encroach upon the rights or interests of one for 
the benefit of another, you violate this great principle, which lies at the 
rery foundation of the Government. Why sacrifice any] The duty on 
wool, by the proposed bill, is twenty-three per cent, ad valorem, and four 
cents per pound. Strike off the four cents, (leaving, under my proposed 
rate of duty, twenty five per cent.) and you add to the profits of the wool 
factory of Dutchess county (above referred to) $7,000, or five per. cent., 
on the capital, and still leave twenty-three (twenty-five) per cent, ad val- 
orem, as a protection to the wool-grower. Strike off a part of the duty 
proposed on pig-iron, and you add to the profits of all the workers in iron 
in the United States, and still leave the producer a heavy protection. 
Strike off but one-fourth from the duty on dressed or tanned leather, and 
you at once enable the shoe and boot-maker better able to compete with 
the foreign labor whilst the tanner will still enjoy a heavy protection. Re- 
duce the duty on all other raw materials used in manufactures to a revenue 
duty, (twenty-five per cent.,) and you relieve all other branches of manu- 
factures. 

" As evidence of the effect which the reduction of the duties on the raw 
material would have on the profits of the manufacturer, we will again re- 
fer to the statements annexed to the report of the majority. The average 
price of wool in this country appears to be about 40 cents a pound. The 
average in Europe is about twenty-five cents. A 20 per cent, duty and freight 
would add about 6 cents. — say it would be imported here at 31 cents, and 
sold to tire manufacturer here at that price; he, thereby, saving 9 cents per 
pound. The amount of wool produced in England alone (according to Mr. 
McCulloch) is, in value, about £3,000,000, or nearly $15,000,000. The 
duty proposed by the bill is 23 per rent., and 4 cents per pound, to pretect 
the wool-grower. In England the duty is only 1 cent per pound to protect 
the wool-grower there. The cost of pig-iron in New York is $30 per ton. 
The foreign cost of the best Scotch pig-iron is about $17 50. The duty 
proposed by the act is $8 per ton, or nearly one-half of the first cost of the 
best Scotch pig-iron. By the proposed bill, dressed or tanned skins and 
hides are to be subjected to a duty varying from $1 25 to $4 per dozen; 
and sole and band leather to 8 cents per pound. Undiessed hides, however, 
(as they are the raw materials of the tanner,) are admitted free of duty, and 
are imported to the amount, in value, of $2,750,000. If then, the manu- 
facturers of wool, iron, and leather, are really, or would be, under a protec- 



9 1 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

tion of only 25 per cent, in the distressed condition in which they are rep- 
resented to be, we may give them essential relief by reducing the duty on 
the raw material — by subjecting it to a moderate duty only, instead of a 
duty of exclusion, as in the three cases we have named. " 

In addition to all this, it is well understood that an unsound, 
inflated paper-money system, which has abounded in this 
country, has operated very unfavorably on the manufacturers. 
This inflated paper system has, or rather had, raised the prices 
of all our merchandise and property far above their intrinsic val- 
ue. The effect of this on the subject we are investigating was this; 
The English manufacturer could ship his goods to this country, 
sell them at auction on a little time, or through the agency of some 
house in this country, " at the high but artificial prices" of our 
paper-money system ; and then vest the proceeds in cotton or 
tobacco, whose prices were not regulated here by paper-money, 
but by the markets abroad, where the currency was sound ; 
and, by means of this purchase of produce, realize the full 
value of his goods, even after paying the duties in this coun- 
try. The artificially high prices here were equal to the duty 
paid ; and the investment in cotton, rice, or tobacco, at prices 
regulated by the sounder currencies abroad, enabled them to 
import and sell their merchandise, greatly to the annoyance 
of our own manufacturers. The United States is now rap- 
idly returning to a sound currency, which, of itself, will greatly 
benefit the manufacturer. Aided by this restoration of our 
currency, and the duties contemplated by the compromise act, 
the manufacturer can not fail, in my opinion, to realize profits 
at least equal to those of the agricultural portion of our popu- 
lation. The 20 per cent, ad valorem, and a full equivalent for 
home valuation and cash duties, I have stated at the sum of 
25 percent. In effect, it will opc-ratc much more than that, in fa- 
vor of the manufacturers. It will drive adventurers out of the 
importing market, fictitious capital will disappear, and none 
but responsible aud discreet merchants will import foreign mer- 
chandise into the country. Our markets, no longer glutted 
with imprudent importations, nor disturbed by forced sales, 
will acquire a steadiness and uniformity highly beneficial to 
the manufacturer. 

Mr. Chairman, having stated the rate of duties agreed on 



ON* THE TARIFF. 95 

in the compromise act; and having shown, I think, clearly, that 
they are sufficient to sustain our most important manufacto- 
ries, if not all of them, I now demand to know on what prin- 
ciple of justice or propriety the duties should be carried higher 
than 25 per cent. ? The statements of the manufacturers, pub- 
lished in the report of the committee, all put it on the ground 
of protecting American against the pauper labor of Europe. 
Sir, this is a specious pretence. It is taken up and repeated 
by the public press, until it has evidently made some impression 
on the public mind. Well, what is the force of the argument ? 
It is admitted that labor is cheaper in most countries of Eu- 
rope than in this ; and it is to supply this very defect that the 
Government has given the incidental advantage of 25 per cent. 
in the collection of her revenue. I contend that this, with the 
advantage of cheaper living, more abundant water-power, our 
inexhaustible supplies of fuel, the lightness of our taxation on 
property, and the general advantages of our free institutions, 
fully make up for this inequality of labor. But suppose they 
do not ; what right have the manufacturers /to ask the Govern- 
ment to impose a tax on all the other people of the United 
States, in order to raise a sum of money equal to this alleg- 
ed difference in the price of labor — to be paid, not into the 
treasury, but into the pockets of the manufacturers ! What 
right have they " to send round the hat" to the farmer, the gra- 
zier, v the planter, the carpenter, the blacksmith, and the other 
mechanics of the country, to collect from each his five, ten, 
fifty, or one hundred dollars, to be paid over to the iron-master, 
to the wool or the cotton manufacturer, to the workers in glass 
or in leather, to equalize the prices of labor? — who, in turn, is 
to go round for them? Protection to all would but lead 
to prohibition ; prohibition would lead to the destruction 
of all revenue from imports; and then comes direct tax- 
ation on all property — real, personal, and mixed. But can 
the other interests of the country sustain this sort of contribu- 
tion, to be levied annually off them, for the benefit of the man- 
ufacturing interests ? The planter can find but a poor market 
for his cotton, rice, or tobacco. The grazier finds his stock 
accumulating on his hands, until their very support threatens 
him with ruin. The grain-grower is compelled to sell at sac- 



96 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

rificing prices, or to leave his wheat, and corn, and rye, and 
oats, to rot on his farm. Yet, in the midst of this universal 
gloom and depression, they are called upon to contribute more 
than one-fourth of their hard earnings to a single favored class 
of their countrymen ! 

Mr. Chairman, I do boldly maintain, that, with the protection 
of twenty-five per cent., and the other incidental advantages 
growing out ot the cash system of duties, and the return to a 
Bound currency in this country, the manufacturers can make a 
larger — much larger — profit on their capital than those relying 
on agriculture and the ordinary mechanic arts can possibly do. 

Let us examine a little the enormous duties proposed by this 
bill, remembering always that they are so much taxes imposed 
on one portion of the people for the benefit of another who 
choose to engage in a business which, they say, a premium, or 
bounty, or protection of one-fourth will not sustain. 

I begin with iron, which all who cultivate the earth must 
have — the plough, the axe, the hoe, the saw, the wedge, the 
nail, &c, &c. 

The bill proposes the following duties : 

On iron castings, vessels, &c. 1£ cts. per ft>. 

blacksmith hammers, &c. 2 do. 

sheet or hoop - - - - 2£ do. 

nails, wrought - - ■ -4 do. 

cut - - - - - 3 do. 

bar, rolled - 125 percent, 

hammered - 85 do. 

A knowledge of the prices, at our chief cities, of the four or 
five first named articles, will show the enormous per centage 
which they pay. Wrought nails, for instance, sold, in January- 
last, (1842,) in New York, at about ten cents ; here they are 
put down at four cents duty ; cut nails, at the same time and 
place, sold for five and five and a half cents per pound ; here 
they are taxed three cents — more than one-half of the price 
of the article. Every farmer may thus be enabled to see how 
he is taxed in that article, which he can not dispense with. 

Let us glance a little, also, at woollens : 

"3d sect-ton. On woollen yarn, four cents per pound, and thirty per cen- 
tum. On wool unmanufactured, the value whereof, at the place of expor- 



ON THE TARIFF. 97 

tation, ehall exceed eight cents, four cents per pound, and twenty-six per 
cent, ad valorem. On ready made clothing ; all milled and fulled cloth, 
known by the name of plain kerseys, or Kendall cottons, of which wool 
shall be the only material ; merino shawls made of wool, and on all other 
manufactures of wool, or of which wool is a component part, subject, by 
any former act, to a duty of fifty per cent. — a duty of forty per cent. ; and 
on flannels, bookings, and baizes, fourteen cents per square yard." 

Why this doubling of duties — so much by the pound, and 
also so much on the value? Blankets, cassimeres, cloths — 
which multitudes of laboring men, without families to make 
what is called homespun, must have — are to be taxed forty 
per cent. ; ready-made clothes, forty. This is an enormous 
protection — too much, by fifteen or twenty per cent. 

How does the case stand with regard to cotton goods ? 

" Section 4. All manufactures of cotton, or of which cotton is a compo- 
nent part, thirty per centum ad valorem ; provided, 

" 1st. That all plain white cottons, not exceeding in value twenty cents, 
shall be valued at twenty cents the square yard, &c. 

"2d. And if dyed, colored, stained, printed, or stamped, not exceeding 
in value twenty-five cents, shall be valued at twenty-five cents. 

Without giving the balance of this section, I pause, that you 
may see and understand the duty on plain and printed cot- 
tons. In New York, a yard of plain cotton cloth I suppose to 
cost five cents; yet it must be considered as costing twenty 
cents ; or, if costing ten cents, the law says it must be con- 
sidered as having cost twenty cents, and pay a duty of thirty per 
cent., not on the actual cost, but on the presumed cost. So of 
all the various-priced calicoes — whether costing ten, or fifteen, 
or twenty cents — they must be considered, in law, as hav- 
ing cost twenty-five cents, and pay a duty at that rate — being 
a duty of one hundred, two hundred, or, in some cases, of three 
hundred per cent., or more. Why this enormous duty, but for 
the entire exclusion of all cotton goods whatsoever? Under 
former duties, all such have been excluded, except about six 
millions' worth; and, under this rate of duty, even that will 
be swept overboard, and the whole home market be entirely 
surrendered to our own manufacturers. Where, then, is your 
revenue ? Not a dollar in the treasury from this formerly 
mighty source of revenue. Not a dollar! And yet a duty, 
ranging from one hundred to three hundred per cent., has been 

8 



98 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

paid by consumers. Paid to whom? Why, to the manufac- 
turers. 

What is the proposed duty " on brown sugar, and sirup of 
sugar-cane in casks ?" Two cents per pound. On the plant- 
ations of Louisiana, it only costs from four to six cents. In 
the Havana much less. How much brown sugar is used in a 
State? How much in a county? How much in any given 
town? How much in each family? Sir, an estimate might 
be made which would startle this country as to the amount an- 
nually paid by the people for the peculiar protection of a few 
hundred sugar plantations in Louisiana. Look, now, a little 
into the proposed duty on leather manufactures: 
On shoes for men 30 cts. per pair. 

On shoes or slippers for women, of silk 25 do. 

On shoes or slippers for women, of other 

material - - - 

On men's boots and bootees 
On women's boots and bootees 
On calf skins - - 

On morocco - - 

On kid skins - ... 

On sole and bend leather - - - 

These rates may not seem so high to those who refer to the 
prices of such things after they are carried to the interior of 
the country for sale ; but to those who know anything of the 
cheapness of the first cost when imported, they cannot fail to 
appear enormous. The article of salt is to be taxed eight 
cents on the bushel. This I take from the prices in the large 
cities, (to which it can be brought as ballast to our vessels,) to 
be a duty equal to 100 per cent, on the very last article which 
should be taxed one cent. The majority have reported, on the 
notion that coffee and tea are necessaries, and not luxuries, 
and should therefore be exempted from taxation. I shall seek 
an opportunity to procure the same exemption for salt. 

I know how this argument against the injustice and oppres- 
siveness of such high rate of duties has been usually met. 
The manufacturers tell us that high duties do not increase the 
price of articles to the consumer. The majority of the Com- 
mittee on Manufactures have given a guarded and cautious 





20 


do. 


1 


25 


do. 




50 


do. 


4 


00 per 


dozen 


3 


00 


do. 


2 


00 


do. 




8 cts. 


per lb 



(JS THE TARIFF. 99 

approval to this strange and inconsistent doctrine. Did the 
committee believe that the sanction of their names could give 
even a decent plausiblity to a position which the very presence 
of the manufacturers sufficiently refuted ? High duties not 
raise the price to the consumer or purchaser ! Why, then, 
have all these manufacturers abandoned their work-shops ? 
Why have they crowded into this city? Why have they 
swarmed about this Capitol like the locusts of Egypt? Why 
all this, if they expect no advance upon their manufactures by 
the high duties which they are imploring Congress to impose ? 
Can we believe that they are spending all this time and money 
on some patriotic project; which, when crowned with success,, 
will but raise up (as they pretend) a more formidable competi- 
tion at home than they now encounter from abroad? Sir, I 
know not which most to despise — the impudence which could 
fabricate, or the credulity which could be deceived by such 
an artifice. 

There is another argument resting on a foundation no more 
solid than the preceding one. It is this : that high and dis- 
tinctive protection should be given, at least to those articles 
which are essential to our national independence. 

Sir, I deny that there are any such articles. Iron for the 
manufacture of arms, and coarse woollen cloths and blankets 
for our armies, are usually mentioned as articles of this de- 
scription. But, sir, who ever heard that war with any one 
nation would put a stop to the importation of such things from 
the other nations who produce them ? In a war with England, 
for illustration : would not the iron of Sweden and Russia still 
find its way in increased quantities to this country ? — both in 
eager competition for the market from which England had so 
recently retired. Nay, more : if all the nations of Europe 
were united in the war, or so far leagued against us as to with- 
hold foreign iron, what becomes of the iron -establishments of 
the West ? — of Western Pennsylvania, Western Virginia, of 
East and Middle Tennessee, of Missouri, and Kentucky? 
These are all situated so far in the interior as to be safe, in a 
good degree, against importations ; and will go on to prosper- 
ity under a 20 per centum protection, or, indeed, no protection 
at all. But Jlie.idea of a war at the same time against all, or, 



100 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 



indeed, more than one or two foreign countries, is too improb- 
able to be admitted into this argument. Iron is not, and never 
can be, considered as contraband; and, therefore, is not liable 
to be seized and captured when found on board a neutral ves- 
sel transporting it to this country. Hence there can be no 
pretence for considering a high duty on that article to be called 
for, on any pretence of its being essential to our national in- 
dependence. 

The same thing may be said of coarse woollens. France 
and Germany would be prompt to supply them in time of war 
with Great Britain. The whole argnment is addressed to the 
ever-sensitive patriotism of our countrymen; but implies 
a poor compliment to their sagacity or commercial discern- 
ment. 

This reference to foreign countries, particularly to Great 
Britain, reminds me of an. argument which, I believe, has done 
more to make converts to the high-tariff" system than all others 
beside — I mean that argument which points to the power and 
glory of England as the fruits of a similar system. Ah, sir, 
there is the great fallacy of the argument. It has deceived 
thousands. It points to the power and glory of England — not 
to her shame. It points to her splendid palaces, to her costly 
temples, to her navies and armies, and to her dominion over 
distant and populous empires ; but never, never does it unveil 
to our view the awful mass of individual poverty, and suffering, 
and wo, which that system has inflicted. I say nothing of un- 
happy, oppressed, and ruined Ireland! Nothing of her one 
hundred millions of indigent laborers in India ! No, I allude 
to England herself — to her naked, starving, suffering people — 
made so by her unequal, unjust, and oppressive taxation — tax- 
ation which pampered her grandeur, but which ruined her peo- 
ple — taxation, which her present minister, backed by more than 
one hundred of a majority in Parliament, at this very moment 
is repealing. I cannot but refer, on this point, to an eloquent 
prophecy of one of my former colleagues, [Mr. Bell,] nearly 
ten years ago. "The day will come, and must come, when 
what is now considered the glorious fabric of British Govern- 
, #ient and British policy will be held a failure in reference to 
the t .true end of all governments. The day will come when 



OX THE TARIFF. 



101 



the English system will be regarded as the most stupendous and 
ingeniously devised system of fraud and oppression ever inven- 
ted by the craft of man — a system of fraud and oppression 
distinguished from all others in the annals of the world, because 
carried on under the guise of freedom." 

Sir, this eloquent prophecy is now fulfilled. The day has 
come when the British policy is acknowledged to be a failure 
by her proudest statesmen. The wretchedness and ruin it 
has inflicted on her starving millions, is nowhere better described 
than by one of our most gifted American poets :* 

" Thy masses in their hovels pine ; 

They curse thee while they toil. 
Thy nobles, of illustrious line, 

Like vampyres, suck thy soil. 
And now, proud mistress of the sea, 
The meanest wretch gives food to thee. 

" A Queen upon a throne of gold, 

A Parliament of drones, 
A nation's voice that's bought and sold, 

While every cottage groans. 
An army o'er the wide world spread, 
To gather garments from the dead." 

Mr. Chairman, I go no further into the arguments by which 
this wretched system, either here or in England, has been at- 
tempted to be supported. I mean to say nothing of the propor- 
tionate loss orgain by the different sections of the Union; and 
least of all do I mean to warn gentlemen against reviving those 
fearful questions which once shook that Union to its centre. 
All that I propose further to show in this argument is, that the 
rates fixed by the compromise, which I estimate at 25 per cent., 
will yield a sufficient revenue to meet the wants of the Gov- 
ernment — not her wants when running a career of wild ex- 
travagance, but when prudently and economically adminis- 
tered. To show the amount which will probably be realized, 
I estimate the imports for several years to come to average 
$100,000,000, of what I presume to be dutiable articles, esti- 
mated by foreign value ; by our home valuation, $125,000,000. 
Twenty per centum on that amount would yield a revenue of 

*Dow. 



102 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECEES. 

$25,000,000 gross. From this deduct $1,000,000, the cost of 
collection, to which sum I think it entirely practicable to reduce 
them by a few prudent regulations — leaving the amount of 
$24,000,000, subject only to the drawbacks allowed by law. 
This system of drawbacks, by which foreign goods, once 
brought in and paying duties are allowed to be reshipped, or 
exported, and the duties returned, I have no doubt is greatly 
defective, and ought to be revised. If that were done, I have 
no doubt the item for drawbacks would be greatly reduced. 
But at present I put down the sum of two and a half millions 
for drawbacks; which, being deducted, leaves $21,500,000 — 
the net revenue from customs for the first year after the com- 
promise act shall go into operation. This twenty-one millions 
and a half do not include any duties on tea and coffee. I esti- 
mate the imports to be one hundred millions, exclusive of them; 
and repose with entire confidence on the estimate. The ques- 
tion, then, arises, whether this revenue of twenty-one millions 
and a half will be sufficient to defray the necessary and proper 
expenses of the Government. I do not hesitate here to affirm 
that, with my knowledge of public affairs, the ordinary and 
current expenses of this Government can and ought to be 
brought within that compass. Nay, I believe they might well 
be reduced to twenty millions, and still be conducted on a 
scale creditable and worthy of a great and gallant nation. 
The two last years of Mr. Van Buren's administration were ra- 
pidly approaching that amount. The Committee on Manu- 
factures were careful to remind us that the average ordinary 
expenditures of the four years (Mr. Van Buren's) were nearly 
twenty-eight millions ; when they knew that the large expen- 
ditures of 1837 and 1838 could find no parallel necessity in the 
present or subsequent years. There is no cause for similar 
expenditures. The Florida war, the purchase and payment 
for Indian lands, &c, have now ceased, and had begun to do 
so in 1830, and still more in 1840. Hence, fairness required 
them only to have taken the average of Mr. Van Buren's two 
last years; which, being done, would have shown about twenty- 
two and a half, instead of twenty-eight millions. But such a 
course would have diminished the necessity for imposing such 
duties as would give high protection ; and, therefore, it is not 



ON THE TARIFF. 



103 



strange that the majority of the committee preferred the for- 
mer mode of computation. 

But if twenty-one and a half millions will not be sufficient 
to administer the Government on that scale which those who 
now control her destinies desire, how shall more than that 
amount be raised? You may increase it, 1st. By a tax on 
tea and coffee between three and four millions ; or, 2d. You 
may increase it about the same amount by the restoration of 
the land-fund to the treasury. Here, then, are the alterna- 
tives distinctly presented to the choice of the majority, who 
now control the action of this Government — either to bring 
down the Government from the twenty-six millions, or more, to 
which you have carried it since you came into power, to twen- 
ty-one and a half millions; or impose your tax on tea and coffee; 
or, finally, abandon the distribution of the proceeds of the public 
lands among the States. Sir, these alternatives are presented 
to both the great political parties of this country. The Dem- 
ocratic party, with but few exceptions, will not hesitate which 
of them to choose. They stand pledged, by their principles, 
to the most rigid economy ; they have vowed, in the present 
emergency, to push forward the most vigorous reductions; and, 
more than all, they stand pledged to this economy by all the 
consecrated provisions of the compromise. Yes,, sir, they 
stand here this day under the solemn conviction that twenty or 
twenty-one millions will be enough for the ordinary expenses 
of the Government for years to come. But they stand here 
determined that, if their adversaries will have more than this, 
it shall not be raised off of the necessaries of life — the essen- 
tials of human subsistance. Tea and coffee are now articles 
of that description, whatever they might once have been. So 
is the article of salt : it is indispensable to man, and to all 
the animals which he makes tributary to his convenience or his 
necessities. But all these essentials — tea, coffee, and salt — 
we know cannot be exempted from taxation, unless our ad- 
versaries restore the land fund, — that fund which they ought 
not to give away, at a time when they have to borrow from any- 
body, and to tax everybody, to make up the deficiency ; that 
fund which is too small to do any sensible good in liquidating 
the enormous debts of the States. Yes, sir ; I repeat the great 



104 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

Democratic creed in the present posture of our public affairs. 
Give back the land money, thereby enabling us to exempt from 
taxation the three great necessaries of life; reduce your ex- 
penditures to the standard of strict and necessary economy ; 
and then you can leave unviolated that glorious treaty of amity 
and peace which was so solemnly ratified in 1833. 

Mr. Chairman, I assume another position, for which I be- 
speak the serious attention of this committe. Your commerce 
is now in the most depressed, not to say paralyzed, condition. 
It can bear no increased burdens. What it wants is, to be 
rendered more free and unencumbered. The condition of the 
currency in most other countries, and the general embarrass- 
ment of all, would seem to require that very weight should be 
removed, and the freest interchange of commodities should be 
encouraged. It is under such convictions as these that the 
wisest statesmen of England are relaxing their restrictions, 
and removing their prohibitions. The general range of Eng- 
lish duties is now being reduced, on an average, nearly one 
hundred per cent. This is a great concession to free and un- 
restricted commerce between her and the other nations of the 
earth — a concession forced upon her by the accumulated ex- 
perience of ages. Shall the United States, at such a moment 
as this, recede from the great principles of free trade, which 
she proclaimed to the States and to the world in 1833? She 
then proclaimed that she would impose no other fetters on her 
commerce with the world than such as were absolutely neces- 
sary for the support of her Government when economically 
administered. This bright and beneficent example has been 
held up to the other nations for imitation. It has produced, 
and is producing, wonderful effects, in England especially — that 
country with which we have the greatest and most profitable 
intercourse. At such a moment as this, I repeat, sha'l we put 
out the light of our own glorious example? No, I trust we 
shall not. If we shall but steadily adhere to it, we shall soon 
reap a harvest of national and individual prosperity, which 
has never been surpassed : — not that hollow and deceptive pros- 
perity by which we were lately so much elated; but prosperity 
as lasting and solid as those great principles of equality and 
justice by which it will be acquired — prosperity which, in two 



ON THE TARIFF. 105 

or three years, at most, will yield you an income, not of twenty, 
but of thirty millions at least. Yes, sir ; it is only of the first 
year of the compromise act that any man need doubt the suffi- 
ciency of your revenue. The second, third, and future years, 
under a reanimated and reinvigorated commerce, will give you 
enough, and more than enough, for every reasonable demand 
on a plain, economical, and republican Government like ours. 
Beyond that, let no one here desire to go. Let no American 
statesman ever consent to impose heavy and unjust taxation on 
the people, in order that this Government may rival the luxury 
and grandeur of the Old World, 



SPEECH, 

Against receiving, referring, or reporting Abolition Petitions; 
delivered in the House of Representatives, January 10, 1844. 



The unfinished business of the morning hour being the Report of the Se- 
lect Committee on the Rules, and Mr. Dsomgoole's motion to recommit 
the Report to the Select Committee. 

Which motion Mr. Black, of Georgia, had moved to amend, by adding In- 
structions to the Committee to report the Rule commonly known as the 
21st : (i. e. which excludes Abolition Petitions.) 

Mr. A. V. Brown, who was entitled to the floor, resumed his 
remarks of a preceding day, and continued them during the 
remainder of his hour. 

The Committee on Rules had reported to this House, (he 
said,) and in that report they had furnished no rule whatso- 
ever for its government in relation to abolition petitions. He 
had already, in his remarks on Saturday last, offered every 
complaint upon this subject which he intended to offer. But, 
having reported no rules at all, what would be the condition of 
this House with reference to this matter ? There were three 
courses, one of which must be adopted. The first was, accord- 
ing to one motion now pending, that the 21st rule should be 
reported by the committee ; that was, in other words, that these 
abolition petitions should not be received. Another course, 
provided for by the instructions which had been offered, was? 
that they should be received, but laid on the table without ref- 
erence, without report, without debate, or any other action 
whatever. The third proposition was, according to the report 
of the committee, that these petitions should not only be re- 
ceived, but be referred, reported, and acted on, like the ordi- 
nary business of legislation. Now, some one of these three 



ON ABOLITION PETITIONS. 107 

modes must be embraced by this House, and be decided on by 
the question now pending before the House. 

Mr. B. did not hesitate to be in favor of the 21st rule. He 
had often voted for that rule ; he was prepared to vote for it 
again ; and not only was he prepared to vote for it, but he was 
ready here in his place to stand up in vindication of that rule 
against the arguments by which it had been assailed. What 
had they heard against the 21st rule ? Every body knew what 
they had heard from the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. 
Adams] and the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Giddings.] He asked 
not what they had heard from them, for they knew it well. Nor 
did he ask what they had heard against that rule from the ra- 
ving fanatics of the day. He would rather enquire what 
they had heard from gentlemen in this House during this ses- 
sion. What had they heard from gentlemen here in their pla- 
ces, and especially from the gentleman from New York, [Mr. 
Beardsley ?] W T hy, they had been told that the 21st rule was 
a violation of the great constitutional right of petition. The 
gentleman from New York had told them so ; the gentleman 
from North Carolina, [Mr. Clingman,] coming from a region 
greatly interested in this subject, had told them so. Mr. B. de- 
nied it. The gentleman said that it not only violated the 
great constitutional right of petition, but had driven the peti- 
tioners out of this Hall ; that it had driven them from their door 
with scorn and contempt. Mr. B. denied it, and defied gen- 
tlemen — (the word " defy" seemed well understood on the other 
side of the House, but its use, a few days since, had not seem- 
ed so well understood on this side of the House) — he defied 
these gentlemen, one and all, to the proof. Where was the 
proof upon the subject ? It was on their journal, and lying 
on their tables ; and he defied gentlemen to the proof upon 
this subject. They might take what petition they pleased; 
they might take the one said to have been signed by fifty thou- 
sand petitioners, presented some sessions since by the gentle- 
man from Massachusetts, [Mr. Adams,] or that other one which 
had, at the last session, been brought in on a great reel and 
set upon the table of the gentleman from Massachusetts for 
ornament to it ; or they might take the one presented by him 
for the dissolution of the Union, or that one presented at this 



108 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

session of Congress from citizens of New York, asking to be 
forever separated from the institution of slavery. They might 
take anyone or all of these petitions, and he would appeal to 
the record to settle the question, whether in any of these cases 
we had violated the great constitutional right of petition ; 
whether we had turned the petitioners out of this Hall ; wheth- 
er we had driven them with scorn and contempt from our 
doors. 

What had been the proceedings of these and all similar ca- 
ses? What had been the practice under the 21st rule ? The 
petitioners in any and in all those cases had " peaceably as" 
sembled." Had the 21st rule prevented that? When they 
had assembled, they had petitioned this House. Did the 2 1st 
rule prevent that ? They had, as the next step, sent their pe- 
titions to their chosen and selected agent. Did we prevent 
that by the 21st rule ? We did not. What was next? That 
agent, in every one of these cases, had brought their petitions 
here within these walls. Did the 21st rule prevent that? No. 
What next? The gentleman from Massachusetts rose in his 
place ; all eyes were fixed upon him, and all ears were opened 
to his voice. What did he do ? He presented these petitions : 
he stated distinctly to the House what they contained, where 
the petitioners resided, what were the grievances complained 
of, how they reasoned upon the subject, and, finally, made 
known to this House what was the redress they prayed for. 
That was the precise process. The record showed the fact. 
And now the question was, whether we had abridged or in any- 
wise violated the great right of petition in this course of pro- 
ceeding? The petitioners had been heard. By themselves ? 
No ; for they had not come here to be heard ; they had been 
heard by their own selected agent, who came within these 
walls, presented their petitions, and made known their prayers. 
Would it, then, be pretended that we had violated their rights, 
or treated them with scorn when we had heard their own agent 
speaking for them, and stating what grievances they prayed 
to have redressed? 

The question now which he wished to put to the gentleman 
from New York and others who seemed disposed to object to 
this 21st rule was, whether, in fact, under that rule, we had 



ON ABOLITION PETITIONS' 1° 9 

ever violated the great right of petition? There could be no 
difficulty in understanding the subject. He could bring illus- 
trations of it from every domestic circle, and from the scenes of 
every-day life. A parent was bound to hear the complaint of 
her offspring; but, pausing and hearing them, she might 
promptly repel them. Although the child might say that the pa- 
rent was precipitate, or even unkind, yet it could never say that 
the parent had refused to hear its complaints. Now, here was 
the great principle of petition. Mr. B. admitted the right in 
its broadest and fullest extent ; and he admitted further the 
duty of this House to hear these petitioners. After these pe- 
titioners were heard, (as they did hear them under this 21st 
rule,) the right of the people was perfect. The duty of the 
House then began, and that duty was to dispose of the peti- 
tions promptly or slowly, as they deemed proper. 

It was a great issue, not only elsewhere but here, whether 
the argument was true, so often used by the gentleman from 
Ohio and the gentleman from Massachusetts, and now sustain- 
ed by the gentleman from New York and the gentleman from 
North Carolina, who had come forward and endorsed the argu- 
ments used in former times upon this subject, whether by this 
21st rule the great constitutional right of petition was violated, 
as they affirmed it was. Mr. B. denied that this right was vio- 
lated, and he appealed to the record, relying upon the known 
practice of the House, (for what he had told them with regard 
to the practice upon these petitions was known to be true by 
every member of the House.) 

But by what sort of an argument was it that the gentleman 
from New York maintained that the 21st rule ought to be 
abandoned? The gentleman told them that this was the very 
best way in the world to put down abolition. His great object 
was to put down abolition ; and the best way to do so, he told 
them, was to receive, to refer, and to report upon these peti- 
tions. The gentleman might as well tell him that the best 
way to save a city was to surrender its fortifications ; or that 
the best way to repel an invasion was to give up all the moun- 
tain passes and strongholds where the enemy might be most 
readily and effectually met and overcome. Put down the 
spirit of abolitionists, defeat their object by doing what ? By 



110 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

granting them four out of five of the very things they desired. 
What did they ask for ? To have their petitions received. Well, 
said the gentleman from New York, " Oh, yes, let us receive 
them ; that is the way to put them down." What was the 
next thing they asked for? To have their petitions referred 
to the committees of the House. The gentlemen from New 
York and the gentleman from North Carolina also said, "Oh, 
yes, let us put down these abolitionists by sending their peti- 
tions to a committee to be examined and reported upon." 
They asked more — that they^ should debate these petitions. 
And gentlemen professing to be opposed to abolition (and Mr. 
B. doubted not sincerely professing) still tried to persuade the 
House that the best way was to yield every inch of ground, and 
refuse nothing but the solitary principle of relief for which they 
finally prayed. Now, it was impossible for Mr. B., as a South- 
ern man, or as a statesman who had watched the progress of 
this abolition question, to believe that this could be safely 
done. 

[Mr.BEARDSLEY (Mr. Brown yielding for explanation) inquired if the 
gentleman said that he (Mr. Beardsley) advised debate upon the subject. 
Surely he had never taken this position. His course was well known : it 
was in favor of taking the final vote upon the whole matter ; and gentle- 
men well knew what that would be.] 

Mr. Brown resumed. But did not the gentleman- perceive 
that if they referred these petitions they must reportupon them; 
and if they reported, they must debate the subject ? If they 
began, on what principle would they avoid carrying out the 
regular process, involving reference, report, and debate? But 
why would gentlemen agree to refer these petitions at all ? 
They all said they were as much opposed to abolition as any 
one, and yet they proposed to refer the petitions to a commit- 
tee which should collect facts, examine laws, and consider the 
subject, and see if some plan could not be devised for carrying 
out the views of the petitioners. If this was not the object, 
they could have no object at all. Why, then, would they re- 
fer, why report upon, why debate these petitions, if they did 
not mean finally to grant their prayer? 

[Mr. Clingiuan (Mr. B. yielding for explanation) said the gentleman 
had misunderstood him (Mr. C.) if he had understood him as being in favor 
of debating these petitions. He was averse to it ; he was willing to see 



ON ABOLITION PETITIONS. 1 1 1 

this rule debated, and to see the report of a committee debated. But he 
thought it beneath the dignity of the House to debate any petition. They 
had enough to do to debate bills, resolutions and reports from committees. 
After reference, if the committee reported for or against the prayer if any gen- 
tleman chose he might then with propriety discuss the matter.] 

Mr. Brown continued. He was glad the gentleman from 
North Carolina had had an opportunity for explanation. But 
did not the gentleman see that the only way to get along with 
this subject with safety to the South, with safety to the gentle- 
man's own State, with safety to the portions of North Caro- 
lina bordering on the rivers of that State where the heaviest 
slave population was to be found , was not to go beyond the 
great question of the right of petition, but there to stop? to 
take no jurisdiction, by reference, by report, or debate over the 
subject? There was comparatively safe ground ; and from the 
explanation of the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. B. in- 
dulged strongly the hope that when they came finally to act 
upon the subject, he [Mr. C] would not be found going beyond 
that. Mr. B. admitted, notwithstanding their rule was so plain, 
and notwithstanding their practice under it had been so plain, 
that there might be extensive misrepresentations and miscon- 
structions of the rule of the country. Now, he asked of the 
gentleman from New York and of the gentleman from North 
Carolina, why they did not stop at that point? Why they did 
not propose in the report of this committee to clear up, to eluci- 
date this subject, and make it manifest in its true light to all 
the people of the country, and to remove all doubts and diffi- 
culties, by going on according to their views to perfect the 
great right of petition? What was requisite for that ? Why, 
simply to declare that the petitions should be received; that 
would perfect the great right of petition in a manner safe to 
the North, and which would be safe to the South in a great 
degree, and it would have saved the Democracy of the North 
from the suspicion of their enemies of a disposition to form al- 
liances with, or to propitiate at least, the fell spirit of ablition- 
ism. Why did not the gentlemen pause at the point of recep- 
tion, and go no farther, if their object was to clear up the mis- 
conception on the public mind ? 

It might seem strange to the gentleman to whom Mr. B. had 



H2 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

referred — to the gentleman from New York, to the gentleman 
from North Carolina, as well as others — that he had laid so 
much stress upon not referring, not reporting, and not debating 
these petitions. Why, it was evident, if these petitions were 
received and laid upon the Speaker's table, that there, under 
the rule, they would lie forever. No great harm or mischief 
perhaps would grow out of this practice. But the very moment 
they referred them to a committee, that moment they took ju- 
risdiction over them, and jurisdiction in such away as to alarm 
the whole country. He was opposed to an action which might 
result in such consequences. 

The argument had been used, that if they would receive, 
refer, and report upon these petitions, as in ordinary cases, 
this would allay the excitement which now exists on this sub- 
ject. Mr. B. had one conclusive answer, one irresistable ar- 
gument, in his humble judgment, against this proposition: They 
had already tried it. Many gentlemen were here discussing 
this question, as though the experiment had never been made, 
of receiving these petitions, and referring and reporting upon 
them. Why, the very speech the gentleman from New York 
had made, if not word for word, yet argument for argument, 
had led to the adoption of the celebrated Pinckney resolution. 
Under this they had been received, referred, and reported on ; 
a dignified, manly, respectful report had been made, and the 
decision of this House had been had upon the question. Now, 
had that allayed excitement? Had that had the tendency to 
put down the spirit of abolition ? So far from it, the gentleman 
from Massachusetts, at the next session, had come within this 
Hall with fifty thousand petitioners at his heels. So far from 
it, the very moment they had adopted the Pinckney resolution, 
and determined to receive, refer, and report upon these peti- 
tions as they did upon all others, the abolitionists all over the 
country said : " Now is the time to make your effort ; send 
men to Congress able to be the speakers of that body — able 
to serve upon the committee, able to speak and vindicate the 
abolition question. The doors of Congress are wide open ; 
they may not long remain so. Therefore, now is the time, 
and put all your machinery in motion to effect your object." 
And abolition had grown and nourished, and they were now 



ON ABOLITION PETITIONS. 113 

reaping a rich harvest from the seeds which had then been 
sown under the Pinckney resolution. 

[Mr. Adams (Mr. B. yielding the floor) said he wished simply to ask 
the gentleman whether the report of Mr. Pinckney was in favor of receiv- 
ing these petitions ? That was what he had understood the gentleman to 
assert. 

Mr. Brown. Certainly it was not in favor of granting their prayer. 

Mr. Adams said it was not in favor of receiving the petitions, and that 
fact had been the occasion of the multitude of petitions which had been pre- 
sented to the next Legislature. The refusal of the House, under that very 
resolution, to receive these petitions, had been the reason for the multidtue 
of them that had been offered since that time.] 

Mr. Brown continued. With regard to the Pinckney reso- 
lution, it had been a long time since Mr. B. had examined it, 
but it had always been pointed to as being in a degree liberal, 
and that very resolution the abolitionists themselves would 
now prefer, a thousand times prefer, to the 21st rule. His im- 
pression was that it did receive these petitions, but laid them 
on the table. 

Mr. B. relied, then, on the clear, manifest experience of 
this House for demonstration that, if they received these peti- 
tions — if they referred and reported upon them — if they gave, 
in other words, a respectful response to these petitioners, he 
relied upon the practice of the House and the experience of 
the country that such results as gentlemen anticipated would 
not grow out of this course of proceeding. Why did gentle- 
men insist so strongly upon referring these petitions ? Why 
would they refer them ? Did they mean to grant their prayer ? 
No. Why then did they profess that they were about to do so, 
by referring the petitions to a committee ? Was it done in hy- 
pocrisy ? He did not charge it, and he would not think it. 
Why, then would they refer them? Was it in order to mani- 
fest respect to the petitioners ? If that were the reason, Mr. 
B. would not show it, for he did not feel it. 

Mr. B. wished now to state some reasons why he was so 
much opposed to the reference of and the report upon these 
petitions. The first was, that if at every session of Congress 
their title to their property was to be brought in question upon 
this floor, it must of necessity diminish, if not destroy the value 
of that property. He wanted gentlemen to consider this : that 
9 



114 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

every year, session after session, if they had no rule upon this 
subject, their title to this description of property (which title 
they admitted, and which he believed everybody was prepared 
to admit, except abolitionists) would annually be brought into 
question in this Hall. Would not this finally destroy its value? 
Suppose a member of this House to have a good and indefea- 
sible title to a tract of land, but yet to be sued for it every 
year, and that he was able to effect recovery in every litiga- 
tion : would it not be very natural for him finally to be compel- 
led to say, that although he knew there was no outstanding 
title, yet,if he was to be sued every year for it, it would be bet- 
ter to give it up to the man who asked for it, although he knew 
that he had no title to it? If they had the practice of refer- 
ring these petitions at every session of Congress, the question 
would be," How does that committee stand?" How many of 
its members are favorable to abolition, and how many opposed 
to it? How many will stay here all the time ? Will not some 
go home, and, by an accidental meeting of the committee, may 
there not be found a majority favorable to the purpose of abo- 
lition ?" The veriest accident in the world might extract from 
the committee a report favorable to the petitioners. Alarm 
and excitement under such a state of things would pervade 
the whole South; our whole Southern population would be 
tossed to and fro, like the waves of the ocean, at every vibra- 
tion and change of parties upon this floor. That was one rea- 
son why Mr. B. would not begin to take jurisdiction of this 
question, by reference to a committee. 

But there was another reason which actuated Mr. B. in his 
course upon this subject. Gentlemen surely did not know 
what was going on in the South. In the spirit of liberality-, 
and just humanity too, they had taught many of their slaves 
to read ; they had relaxed the rigors of their fetters ; and with 
their children they had learned to read, and some to write. 
Did they not see in a moment the danger, under this state of 
things, of the debates here annually — not now and then, once 
in four or five years, but annually — being thrown out upon our 
slave population ? ■ The abolitionists had already sent missives 
to that region of country. They had first addressed the ow- 
ners of slaves, and had afterwards sent their addresses to the 



ON ABOLITION PETITIONS. 115 

slaves themselves. They were there now, and were read by 
their slaves by the flickering lamp at midnight; and so their 
reports and debates, if they were to be made here annually, 
would be read by them in like manner. 

But in these addresses, and particularly in the addresses of 
the abolitionists themselves, what had their slaves been told ? 
They had told them to shed no blood, but that they might steal 
their masters' property of any description necessary to expe- 
dite their flight to the free States ; and they were assured that 
their friends were standing with open arms ready to receive 
them, and conduct them to Canada. That was what they 
were reading now, and no man could tell what the result of that 
reading would be, much less could they tell what dreadful re- 
sults might ensue when they read the celebrated Pittsburg let- 
ter. In this letter a new idea was brought forward and pre- 
sented to their view. The opinion was advanced in it that 
emancipation would come ; that the abolition of slavery would 
be effected in some way or other — whether peaceably, or by 
blood, it was not known; but, in whatever way it should come, 
the writer of that letter was in favor of it. When that should 
be read by their slaves, no mortal man could tell what the con- 
sequences would be. Where had the idea of blood been taken 
from ? (asked Mr. B.) The gentleman from Massachusetts had 
snatched it from the incendiary fires and massacres of St. Do- 
mingo. There they shed the blood of the sleeping infant, and 
piercing its yet warm and writhing body with a stake, marched 
under it as their banner with the swords in one hand, and the 
fagot in the other. Who could tell, when these things were 
read at midnight by the very slaves whom they had favored 
and taught to read for another and better purpose, what would 
be the result ? No man could predict. Hence it was that 
they of the South stood here asking their real friends of the 
North never — if they could not go with them for the exclusion 
of these petitions ; if they thought that was too strong a pro- 
position, and insisted upon their reception — never to go be- 
yond the reception, or make these petitions the subject of ref- 
erence, report, and debate in this Hall. Our safety (said Mr. 
B.) depends upon it; the safety of the bright and glorious 
Union depends upon it. And he wished to say to gentlemen 



116 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

of the North, " You understand what is the intimation of your 
people upon the subject; you know better how this 21st rule 
has been mystified, if not misrepresented. If your safety de- 
pends upon the relaxation or explanation of the rule, why, give 
it; but when you have done that, be satisfied. When you have 
secured the great constitutional principle of petition, there 
stop. There your principles stop. Beyond that you are not 
bound to go ; beyond that you ought not to go ; beyond that you 
cannot go, in my humble judgment, consistently with the great 
compromise contained in the Constitution." 

Now, this was the position of Southern gentlemen here. 
They were of course prepared to vote the strongest measure; 
they were prepared to exclude these petitions. They did vote 
to exclude them. The question was, whether this House had 
any constitutional jurisdiction over the subject. Everybody 
knew they had not. But they of the South — many of them — 
thought the reception of these petitions was taking the first 
step in the assumption of jurisdiction. I (said Mr. B.) go for 
the strongest rule ; but if that is too strong either for your 
judgment, or for that of the people you represent, then give 
us another rule which will not violate the opinion of your con- 
stituents, but which will ensure comparative safety and repose 
to the South. Southern gentlemen could not so much object 
to that. If they could not get the strongest and best rule, 
then they had a right to the next strongest and next best rule. 
That rule might admit of the clear reception of petitions, but 
not of their reference to a committee, or of report, or debate 
upon them, as would occur if there were to be no rule upon 
the subject; not occasionally, once in five or six years, but 
every year. Session after session they would come up to be 
debated here, which, in his humble judgment, could not be done 
consistently with the great principles of the Constitution ; and 
let him again ask gentlemen, who did not mean finally ever to 
give the redress asked for by the petitioners, why they should 
be debated, or reported on, or referred ? To do so would be 
but an idle mockery, or a hypocritical pretension. 

Mr. B. said, so far he had spoken to those who were sensi- 
tive on the right of petition. He had attempted to show that 
this right was not violated in the slightest degree by the 21st 



ON ABOLITION PETITIONS. 117 

rule. He had often sustained this opinion by his votes, and 
he meant now and forever so to sustain it. He hoped that no 
man, either in the South or in the North, who entertained the 
same opinion, would falter or hesitate one moment on the sub- 
ject. But he could not be insensible to what was passing 
around him. He saw, or feared he saw, in the already recor- 
ded votes of this House, in the report now under discussion, in 
the speeches of the gentleman from New York, [Mr. Beards- 
ley,] and in that of the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. 
Clixgman.] and, more than all, in the exulting shout of the 
gentleman from Massachusetts, [Mr. Adams,] that this 21st 
rule was doomed to fall. Hence it was, that he had made an 
appeal, not to him of Massachusetts, not to him of Ohio; but 
to all those who professed only to be desirous of preserving the 
right of petition, to go that far, but no farther. All beyond 
that, was concession to the fell spirit of Abolition, and no man 
could be held guiltless who pandered to its wickedness and its 
folly. The South will hold no man guiltless who shall go one 
inch beyond the right of petition. He must answer for every 
fire that may be kindled, and for every drop of blood that may 
be shed. Yes, sir, I will say to the gentleman from New 
York, and from North Carolina, if this House shall go one inch 
beyond that, they may have to stand answerable for the shat- 
tered and broken fragments of the Union itself. Going be- 
yond that, the highest hopes and the blackest designs of aboli- 
tion may find at last their accomplishment — no, (said Mr. B.,) 
I am wrong in that. These designs, whatever else may hap- 
pen, can never be accomplished in any of the ways now pro- 
posed. All the efforts now making by them only rivet the 
chain of slavery more securely, or make their weight more gal- 
ling and oppressive. In God's own time, and by means of his 
selection, these chains may fall, and the bondsman go free. 
Left to these means unprecipitated by the officiousness of fa 
naticism, the enlightened humanity of the age, the diffusion of 
religious knowledge, and even the better estimated self-interest 
of the master, will soften the rigors of bondage, and render the 
slave, as he now is in many cases, but little inferior, in the 
great elements of happiness, to the master he serves. Give 
slavery but scope and compass — let it dilate itself over ample 



118 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECEES. 

space, and it loses much of that oppression which even a mor- 
bid humanity could deplore. In much of Tennessee, of Ken- 
tucky, of North Carolina, and other States of the South, where 
slavery is not too much condensed, I hesitate not to say that, in 
point of care and anxiety — in point of abundance of food and 
of raiment — of healthful but humble habitation — the slave is 
but little distinguished from the master. They labor in the 
same fields, partake of the same food, repose during the same 
period, and often participate in the same amusements. All 
ancient barbarity of punishment has disappeared, and the 
criminal code of the master has kept pace with the amelora- 
tion of the criminal code of all civilized nations. This cheer- 
ing picture, I admit, assumes a darker coloring as you approach 
the more densely populated regions of the South. But even 
there hundreds and thousands of our slaves, were they to visit, 
as some of them have done, the free States in the North, and 
scan with an eye of intelligence the condition of their colored 
brethren, would turn revolting from the spectacle, and cling 
with gratitude and joy to the protective care and enlightened 
humanity of their masters. Mr. B. would repeat his solemn 
convictions, that the means now used by abolitionists could 
never bring any thing to the colored man of the South but an 
increase of discontent with his present condition. That dis- 
content may bring to him death and destruction. It may lead 
him to revolt against his master. Without arms, without am- 
munition, without discipline, without numbers compared with 
the whites, what could he do? He is hung up on the gibbet, 
or shot down by his pursuers in the fields which he once content- 
edly cultivated, or in the forest where so often he pursued his 
game, the more joyous companion of his master. If the in- 
judicious and really inhuman projects of the abolitionists 
were to induce our slaves to runaway from the South, and seek 
the aid of their supposed friends in the North, what would be 
their condition? Would the abolitionists prove to be their friends 
then ? No, They would be refused a settlement among them. 
They would be forced away to the cold and frozen regions of 
Canada, to perish or to starve ; or be driven away like beasts 
among the Indian tribes of the West, to be enslaved by them, 
or butchered by the Camanchc or other savage nations of the 



ON ABOLITION PETITIONS. 119 

forest. Sir, it is impossible to tell the precise manner of their 
expulsion and destruction ; but expelled and destroyed they 
would be, whilst true religion and humanity would long weep 
over their unhappy destiny. Sir, they are comparatively happy 
now ; let them alone. They are fed well, they are clothed well, 
they are housed well ; they do not labor more or harder than the 
poor of our own color, whose necessities require that they sho^d 
labor for their subsistence. Let them alone. They are ours by 
purchase. You of the North (some of you) first kidnapped them, 
and then brought and sold them to us. Were we to liberate 
them to-morrow, you would not receive them. You would treat 
them with a thousand-fold more barbarity than ever they were 
treated by us. Then let them alone; your benevolence, false 
and often hypocritical as it is, would but kill and destroy them. 
Then let them alone. God in his love, and Religion in her ho- 
liness, will do more and better for them than you ever can or 
will do. But I forget (said Mr. B.) that I speak to a bigotry 
that has no heart, and to a fanaticism that has no ears. I turn, 
therefore, from them to the men and patriots who belong to 
these Halls — the successors of those illustrious men who reared 
this temple, and consecrated it forever to Union and the Con- 
stitution. If thy people shall lift up their e3 7 es to this temple, 
and pray thee for what it is lawful to grant them under that 
Constitution, hear thou and answer them. But if they ask thee 
for what will rend that Constitution, and sunder forever that 
bright and glorious Union, be thou as deaf and insensible as 
the marble pillars which surround you. 



SPEECH, 

On the Right of the Members elected by general ticket to their 
Seats ; delivered in the House of Representatives, February 
9, 1844. 



The Report of the Committee on Elections, relative to the right of certain 
Members to their seats in the House of Representatives, being under 
consideration : 

Mr. A. V. Brown addressed the House as follows — 
Mr. Speaker : There is now lying on your table a bill which 
I had the honor to introduce at an early period of the session, 
proposing a repeal of that section of the apportionment act 
which is the exciting topic of this debate. Whilst the report 
of the committee maintains that section to be void and of no 
effect, that bill declares that it shall be stricken at once from 
your statute-book. The subjects are identical, the arguments 
on them nearly the same ; and, at the close of this debate, I 
shall move the bill on its passage, that both subjects (as nearly 
as possible,) may be disposed of at the same time. Having 
introduced that bill, and being also a member of the commit- 
tee by which this report was made, I stand in such responsible 
connection with both, that I trust I shall be excused by the 
House for participating in this debate. 

This, however, I would not think of doing, did I entertain 
the opinions which have just been expressed by the gentleman 
from Georgia, [Mr. Stephens.] If I were deeply and thorough- 
ly convinced, as he says he is, that I was not duly and constitu- 
tionally elected to this House, I would neither speak in it, nor 
act in it. I would leave it at once, whatever the opinion of 
others might be. So I would do in every other similar case. 
"Were I unlawfully appointed the Judge of a court; or if the 



RIGHT OF MEMBERS ELECTED BY GENERAL TICKET. 121 

court had been unconstitutionally created, I would neither 
clothe myself with its ermine, nor sit on its woolsack. 

The second section of the apportionment act provides, "that 
where a State is entitled to more than one Repesentative, the 
number to which each State shall be entitled, under this appor- 
tionment, shall be elected by districts composed of contiguous 
territory, equal in number to the number of Representatives to 
which said State shall be entitled — no one district electing 
more than one Representative." The introduction of that 
section into the apportionment bill was too singular to have 
escaped observation. The gentleman from Georgia, [Mr. Ste- 
phens,] had adverted to the fact, and was pleased to ascribe 
to it a Democratic origin. I think I shall be able to satisfy 
the gentleman that he has looked into the history of its intro- 
duction into that bill with a too careless eye. [Here Mr. Ste- 
phens (Mr. B. yielding the floor) inquired if the gentleman de- 
nied the fact he had stated, that this portion of the bill had 
been introduced by the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. 
Campbell.] 

Mr. B. replied that he did not deny the correctness of that 
assertion ; but he did not doubt but the gentleman understood 
the fact really to be as he had represented it. 

[Mr. Campbell ( Mr. B. further yielding for explanation) observed that 
the gentleman no doubt had a correct recollection of the origin of the 
second section of this act. It had been in this way : A resolution had been 
introduced by him (Mr. C.) instructing the Committee of Elections, to inquire 
into the expediency of regulating the subject of Congressional elections in 
such a way, by law, as that they should be by uniform districts throughout the 
United States. Sometime afterwards the Committee of Elections, in con- 
formity with these instructions, reported a clause, from which had origina- 
ted this second section ; which clause had been amended on his motion, 
and assumed the shape which it now occupied in the law. So, Mr. C. had 
originated the proposition in the first instance, and in the second instance, 
by his motion, it had assumed the form in which it now appeared as the 
second section of the act.] 

Mr. Brown replied, that he did not mean to say that the 
gentleman was not the real, as he certainly was the putative 
father of the district proposition of that session ; but he must 
insist that the gentleman should content himself with the more 
humble relation of mere god-father to the thought of making 



122 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

it a part and portion of the apportionment bill. That was the 
great matter about which he was complaining. The appor- 
tionment bill was one which was obliged to be passed in some 
form or other. Without it the Federal Government would run 
down and be at an end. The forcing of this section on such a bill 
as that he denied to have had a Democratic origin. He meant 
to demonstrate that, in the farther progress of his remarks, to 
every man's satisfaction. The gentleman's own resolution 
contemplated no connection whatever with the apportionment 
bill — it expressly called for a separate and distinct bill by it- 
self, to stand or fall by its own merits. Mr. Brown said he 
would now proceed on his observations. 

More than fifty years of our political existence had rolled 
by, and no such legislation had ever been proposed. State af- 
ter State had risen up and become members of this Confede- 
racy, not one of which had ever failed cheerfully and promptly 
to furnish its proportion of our national representation. In 
peace and in war — in prosperity and in adversity — amidst the 
fiercest conflict of parties — all had done their duty ; not one 
had failed or refused to regulate " the time, place, and man- 
ner" of holding elections, as required by the Constitution. 
What, then, could have induced the Congress of 1842, with 
no derelictions on the part of the States, with no memorials 
from the seventeen or eighteen millions of the People of this 
country, to wage this wanton and unprovoked war on the con- 
stitutional rights and the ancient usages of the States ? It 
was the blind, infuriated spirit of party, vainly endeavoring to 
perpetuate a triumph which chance or fraud or folly had 
achieved. Those who were influenced by it had the sagacity 
to devise, and the heart to meditate, but not the hardihood to 
consummate the deed. They could declare that none should 
be admitted to membership here but those who had been elect- 
ed by districts ; but they dared not rouse the sleeping lion of 
public indignation, by laying off the districts themselves. To 
show you that I am not mistaken in the party character of this 
war, let me advert to the fact, that the idea of introducing- this 
second section into the apportionment law was engendered in 
the Committee of Elections — a committee eminently partisan 
in its head, and, indeed, in its whole structure. That Com- 



RIGHT OF MEMBERS ELECTED BY GENERAL TICKET, 123 

mittee had no charge of the apportionment bill ; it had no ju- 
risdiction over it. The preparation of that bill had been con- 
fided to a special committee of thirteen, who had reported it 
with no such clause in it. It was, therefore, gross usurpation 
in that committee to attempt to supersede the special one, by 
reporting amendments to it ; and nothing but the inveteracy 
of party would have sustained its arrogant pretensions. On 
the 26th of April, whilst the apportionment bill, as reported by 
the special committee, was under discussion in committee of 
ths whole, Mr. Halsted, of New Jersey, as he said (for he made 
no report, and could have made none in Committee of the 
Whole) by order of the Committee of Elections, proposed the 
second section. The gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. 
Campbell] offered an amendment to Mr. Halsted's, changing its 
phraseology, but not its meaning, which was accepted by Mr. 
Halsted, and adopted by him in lieu of his own. The whole 
Democratic party contended against the amendment at every 
stage of its progress ; not because they were opposed to the 
districting plan, but because they were unwilling to see it en- 
forced on the States by the strong arm of Federal domination. 
They fought it on every inch of ground, and finally recorded 
a unanimous vote against it. [Here Mr. Campbell reminded 
Mr. B. that he was certainly mistaken.] Mr. B. Unanimous, 
did I say ? No, I am wrong in that ; the gentleman from South 
Carolina, [Mr. C] did not vote with us, nor fight with us. Nay, 
he fought against us. He went over to the enemy ; and they, 
delighted with the acquisition, instantly promoted him to the 
command, and he actually led on their proud imperious co- 
horts to the charge. I need not tell you the result. Turn to 
your journals of the 3d of May, and you will find that the Dem- 
ocratic party was overcome by a vote of 101 to 99. The gen- 
tleman's vote, and that of his colleague, Mr. Sampson Butler, 
would have saved us from that mortification. It would have 
saved, too, twenty members of this House from the humilia- 
tion of having to stand, as they have stood, unbonneted and 
dishonored at the door of one of your distant committee rooms. 
This section was thus literally forced into the apportionment 
bill, in despite of all the exertions and resistance of the Demo- 
cratic party. What, then, was to be done ? An apportionment 



124 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

bill was obliged to be passed. The Constitution expressly 
commanded that it should be passed. Without it, there could 
be no members elected — in fact, no Congress ; and the Fed- 
eral Government would have been at an end. To avoid a 
great calamity like this, I do not hesitate to say that the whole 
Democratic party would have been justified in voting for the 
bill, regarding the second section as a mere nullity. The 
Whig party, with the assistance aforesaid, had forced this ob- 
noxious section into the bill ; but as the existence of the na- 
tion is of infinitely higher importance than all considerations 
of the forms and modes of administering it, the Democratic 
party might have been well justified in voting for the bill. 
Well, what did they do ? As long as there was the slightest 
hope that, by rejecting the bill, another might be introduced? 
on which the second section might not be engrafted, we voted 
against it. First, we voted against the engrossment. It was 
a test vote, substituted for a vote on the final passage of the 
bill ; but we voted in vain. A motion was then made by Mr. 
Cooper, of Georgia, to lay it on the table : we voted for that, 
but all in vain ; and the bill was sent to the Senate. Some 
hopes were entertained that the Senate might come to our re- 
lief, by striking the section from the bill. Here, too, we were 
disappointed ; and the bill was returned to us from that body 
with sundry proposed amendments. We resolved to make 
one more effort. The gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. Boyd,] 
moved to lay the bill, with all the amendments, on the table. 
The motion, like the previous one, failed; and with it expired 
all hope of our ever being able to get clear of the odious section 
of the bill. Sir, this was the last effort of the Democratic 
party to get clear of this section. But a motion was after- 
wards made by Mr. William Cost Johnson to lay the bill on 
the table; and the question is sometimes asked, why we did 
not all vote for that with the same unanimity as on the previ- 
ous motions. Sir, I will tell you. The previous motions to 
lay on the table by Mr. Cooper and the gentleman from Ken- 
tucky, [Mr. Boyd,] were made bona fide, to get clear of the se- 
cond section. Mr. Cost Johnson's was not. He was a great 
friend to that section. He had voted for it, and I believe had 
voted against every proposition to get clear of it. His only 



EIGHT OF MEMBERS ELECTED Br GENERAL TICKET. 



125 



object was to get an alteration of the ratio. With the ratio 
we were satisfied, and wanted no alteration. It was palpable 
that his purpose was to use a portion of the Democracy in get- 
ting a ratio to suit himself, and then turn round and use the 
Whig party to again fasten the second section upon us. Sir, 
Democracy may be overpowered ; she may be borne down by 
numbers ; but she can not be played upon in that manner. We 
knew his purpose went no farther than an alteration in the 
ratio. We voted against such an alteration. This was the 
substance and true nature of the vote, and so it was under- 
stood at the time. 

So much, sir, for the action of Congress on the passage of 
this law. What has been the action of the States since its en- 
actment ? Precisely what it was before. The Constitution of 
the United States expressly provides that the time, place, and 
manner of holding elections, shall be prescribed by the Legis- 
latures of the different States. In pursuance of that provision, 
all the States had made the necessary and proper regulations 
for holding them — four by the general ticket, and all the rest 
by the district system. These four were New Hampshire, 
Georgia, Mississippi and Missouri. Their Representatives, 
presenting themselves here with the commissions of their re- 
spective States, have been recognized as members, not only in 
the organization of the House, but in all its proceedings, up to 
this time. This report maintains that they are rightfully and 
lawfully here, and ought to continue here, with all the rights 
and privileges of members of this House. Why should they 
not have been recognized as members of this House? They 
were here with commissions precisely like our own ; signed by 
their Governors, countersigned by their Secretaries, and attes- 
ted by the great seal of their States respectively. On the face 
of these commissions it does not appear whether they were 
elected by the district or general-ticket plan. No rival claim- 
ants were here, as in the New Jersey case, presenting counter- 
credentials, nor calling on the House to go beyond or behind 
these commissions. The shattered remnants of that party 
which had passed the law, protested against their recognition ; 
but they protested in the face of credentials precisely like their 
own ; in the face of their own favorite doctrine, so much relied 



126 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

on in the New Jersey case, that the broad seal of a State was 
prima facie evidence of a right to a seat in this Hall. Day af- 
ter day they clamored for the privilege of recording at full 
length their protest against their admission. According to all 
Parliamentary law, and all the rules of correct practice, they 
had no such right ; but, in a party point of view, it might have 
been better to have allowed them to spread it on the Journal. 
It would have established against them, to all future genera- 
tions, an inconsistency in doctrine, an instability of principle, 
only equalled by the atrocity of their attempted invasion on 
the rights of the States. 

It is a proud reflection that, in the whole history of this sub- 
ject, the Democratic party has preserved the most exact and 
beautiful consistency. It has followed the light of all the ex- 
amples of its illustrious founder. In originally voting against 
this section, and in afterwards admitting the members on the 
presumptive validity of their credentials, we have manifested 
the most delicate and scrupulous regard for the rights of the 
States. 

Mr. Speaker, I come now to the consideration of the consti- 
tutionality of the second section of the apportionment bill of 
1842. If it be construed as a command to the States, it is evi- 
dently unconstitutional. If it fall short of a command, but is 
to be regarded as a penalty suspended over the heads of the 
States, depriving them of representation if they shall fail or 
refuse to conform to the declared will of Congress, it is equally 
unconstitutional. Who ever authorized this Government to hold 
penalties, conditional or unconditional, over the heads of the 
sovereign States of this Union ? The Constitution may com- 
mand them, but the Congress of the United States cannot. 
The Constitution did command them to prescribe the time, 
place and manner of holding the elections, and the States of 
New Hampshire, Georgia, Mississippi, and Missouri, have done 
so. On the days of the election of their present members, 
they are obeying this command of the Constitution ; for they 
were acting throughout the election under laws which their 
Legislatures had enacted in precise accordance with the requi- 
sitions of the Constitution. Their laws, then, were as valid 
and binding as any law passed on the subject by Congress 



RIGHT OF MEMBERS ELECTED BY GENERAL TICKET. 127 

could be, so far as the source of power for such legislation 
was concerned — the power in both cases running back and 
resting on the Constitution. It is, therefore, perfectly plain 
that the regulations of those States were valid and binding 
at the time of their elections, unless Congress had either made 
new ones or altered those of the States. I am desirous, sir, to 
fix your attention on the very day, and on the hours of their 
elections. The people were assembled to exercise the great- 
est privilege of freemen ; they were assembled on the right 
day, for Congress had not interferred with that ; they were 
assembled at the right places, for Congress had not legisla- 
ted at all as to them; what, then, remained of doubt or 
of question? Why, it must be as to the manner of 
holding the election — what officers should hold it— how 
the votes should be taken in, whether viva voce or otherwise. 
If the word manner has a wide signification in the general, it is 
here expressly limited by the word holding. Now, remember 
that the Legislatures of those States had provided everything 
necessary as to the manner of holding the elections ; they had 
done that, too, by the express command of the Constitution. 
But did Congress, by the act of 1842, either alter these regula- 
tions as to the manner of holding the elections, or make new 
ones inconsistent with them ? Congress did not touch that 
subject at all; it did not allude to the manner of holding these 
elections — who should take in the votes — whether they should 
be given viva voce or otherwise : all these matters were, there- 
fore, unrepealed or unaltered by the act of Congress. 

The elections so proceed. The people assembled— on the 
right day — at the right places ; they gave in their votes to the 
right officers, who declared the result, and certified according- 
ly. Well, so far, none will deny but that the people have done 
all in their power, and that they have acted not only in accor- 
dance with the laws of the State, but with those of Congress. 
Why, then, can they not have their Representatives on thi3 
floor ? They have complied literally with the laws of the 
State, and these laws were passed precisely according to the 1 
Constitution of the United States ; nor have they acted in any- 
wise inconsistent with any law of Congress in relation to the 
manner of holding their elections ; why, then, cannot they 



128 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES, 

have the benefit of representation here ? Gentlemen answer, 
because those States have not been laid off into districts. Well, 
I take the answer. Who did not lay off the districts ? First, 
Congress did not; secondly, those States did not: no other 
body could have done it. And so between the action of Con- 
gress or of the Legislatures, the people are to be deprived of 
the great and inalienable right of representation. Sir, it can- 
not be so — it must not be so. Every intendment must be made, 
and every construction must be given to the action of Con- 
gress and of the Legislatures, which will preserve, and not de- 
stroy, a right so justly dear to freemen. Gentlemen reply to 
this by saying, that although Congress did not lay off the dis- 
tricts, yet she declared that the number to which each State 
should be entitled should be elected by districts, and that these 
districts should be composed of contiguous territory, and that 
it was left to the States to lay them off or not, as they might 
think proper. Mark, sir, the high imperative words which 
these gentlemen employ — which their law of 1842 employs : 
" Shall be elected by districts" — " shall be composed of con- 
tiguous territory." To whom is this language addressed but 
to the Legislatures of the States ? If Congress did not, who 
else could lay off the districts but the Legislature ? who are 
even told how to lay them off — " of contiguous territory ;" and 
yet gentlemen have over and over again admitted that as a 
command of the General to the State Governments, it is entire- 
ly null and void. 

Let us now take another step in the progress of this argu- 
ment. Suppose these four States to have obeyed this command 
of Congress, and to have laid off the districts : then, of course 
the election would have been held by districts. Why ? Sim- 
ply because the last law of the State, establishing the district 
system, would have repealed the former law of the State es- 
tablishing the general-ticket system. So, if Congress, instead 
of issuing a command which it could not enforce, had proceeded 
to lay off the districts for and within the several States, then it 
might have been argued, on the other side, that the later act 
of Congress, establishing the district system, repealed and 
disannulled the former laws of the States, establishing the gen- 
eral-ticket system. In both these cases the argument is, that 



RIGHT OF MEMBERS ELECTED BY GENERAL TICKET. 129 

the setting up of the one system is the pulling down of the 
other. Well, letus test this question by that argument. Did Con- 
gress set up a district system so incompatible with the general 
ticket of the States as to supersede or displace it? Did Con- 
gress set up or establish a district system at all? She declared 
there should be one set up or established by somebody, but by 
whom, she did not say. She did not set it up herself; and the 
advocates of her laws say she did not mean to command the 
States to set up or establish it ; and these four States, accord- 
ingly, have not done so. The conclusion follows this state- 
ment of the facts, that, by not laying off the districts herself, 
Congress has only issued an abstract declaration of her will 
and pleasure, without setting up any system superseding or 
displacing that of the States. As a rule of action for the gov- 
ernment of the people, it is impracticable. As a system for 
the preservation of their rights, it is impossible of execution. 
But shall their rights, therefore, perish ? Certainly not. Un- 
secured by the vague and impracticable legislation of Con- 
gress, they shall live and abide in the legislation of the States ; 
founded on the same authority as that of Congress — the Con- 
stitution of the land. It was to guard and preserve to the 
people this great right of suffrage, that a double protection 
was provided by the Constitution. It was to be protected both 
by the Legislature of the States and by Congress : neither 
could destroy it. If the Legislature should assail it by pre- 
scribing no regulations as to the time, place, and manner of 
exercising it, then Congress might make them. But the true 
question is, can Congress, under this conservatory provision, 
do anything, not to preserve, but to destroy this great right? 
Could Congress say, "I have left this power long enough with 
the States, and will therefore take it to myself" — the whole 
power over the time, place, and manner of holding elections ? 
Saying and resolving this, could she pass a law declaring that 
all laws and parts of laws passed by the States provid- 
ing for the holding of elections for Congress, should be 
repealed, and that hereafter all laws upon that subject 
shall be passed only by herself? If she went no farther 
than that; if she did not actually make the necessary laws 
for holding elections, would such a law be a valid repeal 

10 



130 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

of the State laws, and would the right of suffrage be lost 
and sacrified? No, sir, never. Congress would have no 
right to repeal the State laws at all. Her abstract declara- 
tion would pass for nothing ; and it would be only by going on 
beyond such abstractions, and actually building up a system 
of regulations totally inconsistent with those of the States, 
that she ever could supersede them. This glorious right, lying 
deep in the foundations of our free institutions, could not have 
been better secured. If it may ever die in the Legislatures 
of the States, it is because it springs into new life in the Con- 
gress of the United States ; and when it dies here, it is re- 
animated in the States. Sir, in the theory of our form of 
Government, it is an immortal right, and can never perish 
but with our free institutions. 

Mr. Chairman, there are many other views of this constitu- 
tional question, but I have not time to take them. I think it 
may well be questioned whether the term manner has allu- 
sion to the laying off of districts at all ; and I entertain strong 
doubts whether, if Congress assume jurisdiction over any part 
of the regulations of elections, she must not take jurisdiction 
of the whole. '. However these question may be solved, I am 
clear in the opinion, that if she assume to regulate the time, 
she must specify the time ; if the place, she must designate 
the place; and if the manner relates to districts, she must create 
the district, or other territorial division. These are my opin- 
ions ; and I was in nothing so much surprised as that the 
dominant party, who passed the law, should have stopped 
short of actually laying off the districts ; that being the most 
effectual way to have secured the accomplishment of their 
purposes. What were those purposes ? I have already stated 
them — the perpetutation of their ill-gotten power. The elec- 
tions were turning rapidly against them. Something must be 
done. This plan was devised. The ancient usages of the 
States were to be disregarded, and a command was to be sent 
forth which they knew many of the lion-hearted Democratic 
States would scorn to obey. Scorning to obey, they might re- 
turn members to this House, who might sue in vain for admis- 
sion here. Rejected, as they hoped all such would be, and as 
all such would have been but for the unusual Democratic 



RIGHT OF MEMBERS ELECTED BY GENERAL TICKET. 131 

strength of this session, the sceptre of power might still be re- 
tained by them, in spite of the murmurs of a deceived and in- 
sulted people. Did you not mark the promptness, as if by 
concert and premeditation, with which the question of their 
admission was sprung upon the House on the first day of the 
session. Never before, since the foundation of this Govern- 
ment, was a document found ready printed and laid upon our 
tables before Congress was even organized. The speech of 
one of the advocates of this second section, made in 1842, was 
here, bright and fresh from the press, by ten o'clock in the 
morning. Besides this, did you ever see so long a protest pre- 
pared and presented in so short a time ? Everything seems to 
have been " cut and dried" for the occasion. Now, sir, sup- 
pose your majority here had not exceeded twenty, do you not 
perceive the consequences ? With a large majority of the 
people of the United States Democratic, you would have had 
a Whig Speaker — Whig Committees — Whig Printers — Whig 
organization throughout; and the whole system of Whig mea- 
sures might have been still fastened on the country — condemn- 
ed and repudiated as they had been by the American people. 
What could have saved this country from such results ? 
Nothing I know of, nothing but a repetition of those Execu- 
tive votes, which entitle the President to the lasting gratitude 
of the nation. Even now you every day hear the sound of 
the guillotine from the other end of this building, and behold 
the headless bodies of their victims borne away from the Capi- 
tol ; what would have been the state of things then, with both 
branches fully organized against you ? What could you have 
done to stay the arm of Federal domination ? In connexion 
with this view of the subject, take that other bill passed at 
that session auxiliary to this — the bill providing for the organ- 
ization of this House. The Constitution expressly provided 
that each House should be the judge of the election, qualifi- 
cation, and return of its own members. By that bill all this 
power was given to your then Clerk, a warm and devoted 
friend to the dominant party. No appeal could be taken 
from his dicision — his decree of admission or rejection was to 
be final and conclusive. I know it is often said that such ad- 
mission was to last only during organization, and until the 



132 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

Committee of Elections might report on the case. When 
might that be ? Look at the New- Jersey case ; the Nailor and 
Ingersoll case ; at the Florida case, and others, and tell me if 
this might not be at the end of the Congress ? That bill was 
a most flagitious outrage on the right of this House. It brought 
you, impotent and powerless, at the feet of your own Clerk. 
But that bill passed ; and nothing saved you from its opera- 
tion but the noble conduct of the President, in not returning it 
within the time required by the Constitution, it being the very 
close of the session. Taking, then, these two laws together, 
and they exhibit the deepest laid scheme for the perpetuation 
of power ever laid since the formation of this Government. 

Mr. Speaker, there is one point of view in which the pas- 
sage of this second section should be peculiarly obnoxious to 
the American people. The adoption of the Federal Constitu- 
tion, after it had been made, was of vast importance and of 
painful solicitude. Many of the illustrious men who framed 
it were extremely doubtful of its ratification. The State Con- 
ventions, to whom it was referred, participated fully and deep- 
ly in this solicitude. They found many things in it which they 
did not really approve; but rather than hazard the whole of that 
sacred instrument, they concluded to let them pass, and trust 
to the future wisdom of Congress not to abuse the powers 
which they had conferred. The clause of the Constitution 
which declared that Congress might make or alter the regula- 
tions of the States, as to the time, places and manner of hold- 
ing elections, is a most apt and striking illustration. The 
power was too broad in its language. They desired Congress 
to have the power only in the single case where the States 
would not or could not make such regulations ; but the terms 
seemed to extend beyond that. What should they do? Re- 
ject the Constitution, and trust to the formation of another ? 
The difficulties they had encountered in the formation of this, 
and the incalculable mischief growing out of the want of a 
Constitution, induced them at last to ratify it as it was ; but to 
leave on their records, for the guide and instruction of their 
posterity, the most solemn instructions that they should never 
take advantage of the defect. It was a known, declared, ad- 
mitted defect. But they appeal to their posterity to appre- 



RIGHT OF MEMBERS ELECTED BT GENERAL TICKET. 13? 

ciate the trying circumstances by which they were surrounded, 
and never to take advantage of it. That appeal sunk deep in 
the heart of every American bosom, and was never disregard- 
ed till 1842. 

Sir, let us go back to the records of that ancient time, and 
read the very words of exhortation and instruction which were 
uttered by those immortal patriots who ratified the Constitu- 
tion. I begin with Massachusetts. What did she say as to the 
very clause under discussion ? She placed upon her records 
the following declaration : 

" The Convention do therefore recommend that the following alterations 
and provisions be introduced into the said Constitution : Section 3. That 
Congress do not exercise the powers vested in them by the fourth section 
of the first article, but in a case when a State shall neglect or refuse to 
make the regulations therein mentioned, or shall make regulations sub- 
versive to the rights of the people to a free and equal representation in 
Congress, aoreeable to the Constitution. And this Convention do, in the 
name and in behalf of this Commonwealth, enjoin it upon their Repre- 
sentatives in Congress at all times, until the alterations and provisions 
aforesaid shall have been considered agreeably to the fifth article of said 
Constitution, to exert all their influence, and use all reasonable and legal 
methods to obtain a ratification of said alterations and provisions, in such 
manner as is provided in said article." 

Sir, had any State failed or refused to provide for the elec- 
tion of members to Congress ? Not one. Did the Represen- 
tatives of that ancient Commonwealth '" exert all their in- 
fluence*' against the exercise of this power in any other case? 
They did not ; but voted for this section, in disregard to the 
most solemn injunctions of their fathers. 

I next advert to the State of South Carolina — the Palmetto 
State — so proud, and so justly proud, of those illustrious pa- 
triots who adorn her Revolutionary history. Her Convention 
declared that the power to make regulations for the election 
of members should be forever inseparably annexed to the 
sovereignty of the States, except in the single case of refusal 
or neglect by the States ; and they adopted the following reso- 
lution : 

" And whereas it is essential to the preservation of the rights reserved to 
the several States, and the freedom of the people, under the operations of 
a general government, that the right of prescribing the manner, time, and 



134 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

places of holding the elections to the Federal Legislature, should be in- 
separably annexed to the sovereignty of the several States : This Conven- 
tion doth declare, that the same ought to remain, to all posterity, a per- 
petual and fundamental right in the local, exclusive of the interference of 
the General Government, except in cases where the Legislatures of the 
States shall refuse or neglect to perform and fulfil the same, according to 
the tenor of the said Constitution." 

" Resolved, That it is a standing instruction to all such Delegates as may 
hereafter be elected to represent this State in the General Government, to 
exert their utmost abilities and influence to effect an alteration of the 
Constitution conformably to the foregoing resolution." 

Need I pause to inquire whether, in the adoption of this se- 
cond section the Representatives of that gallant State did exert 
their utmost abilities and influence in obedience to these stand- 
ing instructions ? I have already told you that two of them 
felt at liberty wholly to disregard them — solemn and time- 
honored as they were, these gentlemen felt at liberty to dis- 
regard them. 

The State of New Hampshire comes next in order — the 
granite State — granite in her Democracy, as she is in her 
geology. The declaration of her Convention is in nearly the 
very words of Massachusetts ; limiting the exercise of this 
power to the single case of neglect and refusal, and enjoining 
at all times on her Representatives to make such limitation an 
express and positive provision of the Constitution. 

"The Convention do therefore recommend thatthe following alterations 
and provisions be introduced into the said Constitution : 

" III. That Congress do not exercise the powers vested in them by the 
fourth section of the first article, but in cases when a State shall neglect or 
refuse to make the regulations therein mentioned, or shall make regula- 
tions subversive of the rights of the people to a free and equal representa- 
tion in Congress ; nor shall Congress in any case make regulations con- 
trary to a free and ecmal representation." 

"And the Convention do, in the name and in behalf of the people of this 
State, enjoin it upon their Representatives in Congress, at all times, until 
the alterations and provisions aforesaid have been considered agreeably to 
the fifth article of the said Constitution, to exert all their influence, and 
use all reasonable and legal methods, to obtain a ratification of the said 
alterations and provisions, in such manner as is provided in the said 
article." 

Virginia (next in order) went farther than all this. She not 



RIGHT OF MEMBERS ELECTED BY GENERAL TICKET. 135 

only declared in favor of an amendment limiting the power to 
the case of refusal or neglect, but she expressly enjoined it 
upon her Representatives, until such alteration of the Consti- 
tution shall be made, " to conform to the spirit of the amend- 
ments, as far as the said Constitution will admit." 

" XVI. The Congress shall not alter, modify, or interfere in the times, 
places, or manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, 
or either of them, except when the Legislature of any State shall neglect 
or refuse, or be disabled by invasion or rebellion, to prescribe the same." 

"As the Convention do, in the name and behalf of this Commonwealth , 
enjoin it upon their representatives in Congress to exert all their influence , 
and use all reasonable and legal methods, to obtain a ratification of the fore- 
going alterations and provisions, in the manner provided by the fifth article 
of the said Constitution ; and in all congressional laws to be passed in the 
mean time, to conform to the spirit of these amendments, as far as the said 
Constitution will admit." 

The State of New York was peculiarly guarded and cau- 
tious in her ratification of the Constitution. Amongst other 
limitations and conventional constructions of that instrument, 
she declares "her adoption of this clause, under the expecta- 
tion that Congress will not make or alter any regulation in this 
State respecting the time, place, and manner of holding elec- 
tions for Senators and Representatives, unless the Legislature 
of this State shall neglect, or refuse to make laws or regula- 
tions for the purpose, or, from any cause, be incapable of 
making the same ; and in those cases such power will only be 
exercised while the Legislature of this State shall make pro- 
vision in the premises." But the New York Convention did 
not stop even here; they adopted the very words of Virginia, 
and in the name and in behalf of the people, instructed their 
Representatives that until this clause should be amended, " all 
laws to be passed by Congress in the meantime to conform to 
the spirit of such amendments, as far as the Constitution will 
admit." 

I come now to the State of North Carolina. She gives a 
most emphatic expression of her views and wishes in relation 
to the extent of this power in Congress over the " time, place, 
and manner of electing Representatives to Congress." Her 
seventeenth amendment provides " that Congress shall not 



136 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

alter, modify, or interfere in the times, places, or manner of 
holding elections of Senators and Representatives, or either 
of them, except when the Legislature of any State shall neg- 
lect or refuse, or be disabled by invasion or rebellion, to pre- 
scribe the same." 

When Rhode Island soon after the rest, came in, it was un- 
der a ratification, declaring the same purpose to amend the 
Constitution on this point ; and until it was done her positive 
injunctions to her Representatives were, like those of New 
York and Virginia, that they should conform to the spirit of 
such amendments. 

Thus, sir, I have given you seven out of the old thirteen States, 
who contended against a literal construction of the Constitu- 
tion as it was worded ; seven out of the thirteen who declared 
that its wording must be changed ; seven out of the thirteen 
who declared that, until it was so altered, their members of 
Congress must conform to the spirit of that clause as they had 
expounded it. What a sacred, what a holy injunction was 
here ! They did not like the words of this section ; but they 
approved the balance of the Constitution. They believed the 
future glory and prosperity of their country depended on its 
immediate adoption. They were unwilling to risk losing all 
for the sake of some few amendments to it. In this great 
emergency they ratified it as it was ; but called on their pos- 
terity to the remotest generation, not to take advantage of its 
specified defects, but to conform to its spirit with fidelity and 
honor. 

Sir, I will not speak for others ; but I will say for myself, 
that I would tear the seals from a father's will ; I would disre- 
gard his last dying request, as soon as I would have disre- 
garded the consecrated instructions of these great benefactors 
of their country. Sir, let us restore these instructions — let us 
re-establish their will, by repealing the second section of the 
apportionment act. Let us, moreover, re-affirm the invalidity 
of this section, by continuing a full representation of all the 
States on this floor. There is not a warmer friend to the dis- 
trict plan of electing members of Congress than I am. But 
let it be done freely and voluntarily by the States themselves 
and not be forced on them by the strong arm of Federal 



RIGHT OF MEMBERS ELECTED BY GENERAL TICKET, 137 

power. Almost every State in the Union is now electing by dis- 
tricts. Repeal this section of the law — withdraw your uncon- 
stitutional mandamus, as some regard it — remove those pains 
and penalties which you have suspended over the States, and 
I do not doubt that, in less than two years, scarce a single 
State will be found electing by the general ticket. 



SPEECH, 

On the Territorial Government of Oregon; delivered in the 
House of Representatives, Monday, January 27, 1845. 



Mr. A. V. Brown said, in reply to the gentleman from 
Massachusetts, why he had made the motion to strike out the 
word " nine," he would state that, at the last session, when 
the Committee on Territories reported this bill, it was reported 
correctly but by some mistake in copying, or otherwise, 49 
minutes was inserted instead of 40. Where did the commit- 
tee get the 54 degrees 40 minutes from? he supposed was the 
question substantially which the gentleman intended to ask. 
He read from the report of the Committee on Territories of 
last session, showing that that parallel was taken from the 
treaty between the United States and Russia of April, 1824. 

The gentleman from Massachusetts seemed anxious that 
this subject should lie over. Mr. B. had called it up this morn- 
ing because of its importance to the whole country, and be- 
cause he had given assurance that he would move it immedi- 
ately after the settlement of the great Texas question. Thus 
he had called it up ; he had no design however to press it with 
a precipitancy unbecoming the magnitude of the question. 

So far as related to the American title to the country, to the 
full extent of the limits proposed by the bill, as reported by the 
committee, he knew of no public man in the United States who 
did doubt the title of the United States to the full extent of 
fifty-four degrees forty minutes. But the Committee on Ter- 
ritories, when they proposed to extend our laws to the whole 
extent of that country, did not imagine that they were interfer- 



TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT FOR OREGON, 139 

ing in the slightest degree with the negotiation now in progress 
upon the subject; and the committee believed that the United 
States was asserting only the same jurisdiction over that entire 
country that Great Britian was now exercising. It was well 
understood that the laws of the United States now extended 
over that whole territory. Why, then, might not we do what 
they proposed? Our people had gone to that country, to 
which few, if any, entertained the slightest doubt of our title; 
and being there, they stood every day in need of our legisla- 
tion. Great Britian had her magistrates there ; she had sent 
thither her code of laws, her judicial tribunals ; she had forti- 
fications studded all over that country ; and what was there in 
existing treaties which forbade our doing the same thing? 
Should we lag behind — ay, should we longer lag behind on 
this great question ? We did not propose to do more than she 
had done, but to do as much; and he trusted that this House, 
would never hesitate to do it, which they might do without 
violating any existing stipulations between the two coun- 
tries. 

He had never believed that, under the treaty of 1818, or of 
1827, Great Britain, or any of her subjects, ever held joint 
possession or occupancy of that territory with the United States. 
The Committee on Territories entertained the opinion that we 
had had, at least since 1812, exclusive right of possession; and 
Great Britain had never divided that right with the United 
States at all. The stipulation of the treaty was only that 
they should have the privilege of entering through the bays and 
harbors of that country into Oregon, for the purpose of carry- 
ing on their trade, for purposes of hunting and fishing, &c; 
but while they had this privilege it never was intended by the 
stipulations of our treaty that they should come in and claim 
undivided possession of the territory. However that might be, 
if they claimed joint possession with the United States, and 
had extended their laws there, was there any reason why the 
United States might not do the same thing ? There might be 
collisions, to be sure, in joint occupation; and when they 
arose, they must be provided for ; but the question of the pro- 
bability of collision was not one which addressed itself to this 
House at all. That was a question for the consideration of 



140 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

the executive, whether he should give the notice contemplated 
by the convention of 18-J7. Now, the Committee on Territo- 
ries believed, when they reported this bill, that they were ac- 
ting strictly and exclusively within the legislative powers of 
Congress ; that they were leaving the executive to act when 
and how it pleased with regard to giving this notice to termi- 
nate what was usually called the joint possession of this coun- 
try. That was a question with which they did not intend to 
interfere. The gentleman from Massachusetts had stated that 
he had no doubt as to the ownership by the United States of 
that country from forty-two to forty-nine degrees. Well, over 
so much of the territory it would be right to extend our laws 
and our institutions ; and the committee believed our title was 
good from forty-nine degrees to fifty-four degrees forty minutes, 
and they proposed to extend our jurisdiction over the whole 
country. 

Suppose, now, this jurisdiction progressed and terminated by 
the loss of that portion of the country, (which he supposed 
only for the sake of the argument, and which he had no idea 
would be the case,) why, to that extent the treaty stipulations 
between the two countries would curtail our legislation, and 
would leave our resolutions in full force, and our laws in full 
operation over the whole territory south of the line ultimately 
agreed on by this negotiation. So, that in no possible point of 
view could he imagine any reason why this House should not 
go as far as they were called on to go by the Committee on 
Territories. Let the negotiation terminate as it might, there 
must be a large portion of the territory to which Great Britain, 
although she had claims, had yet no just claims; and over that 
territory our legislation was to be extended. 

But inasmuch as Great Britain, as the gentleman from Mas- 
sachusetts had said, exercised jurisdiction as far as forty-two 
degrees, could we not as well exercise jurisdiction up to fifty- 
four degrees forty minutes, with as much propriety; leaving all 
questions with regard to settlement of boundary to the negot'a- 
tion, as now progressing, and leaving this House and the other 
branch of Congress to establish a territorial government in 
that country, subject to whatever was the result of the nego- 
tiation ? 



TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT FOR OREGON. HI 

In this view the bill was reported ; and he desired, in order 
that every gentleman should be fully apprised of the grounds 
on which the bill was presented to the House, that a few pages 
of the report of last session accompanying, the bill should be 
read. 

They were read by the Clerk accordingly, as follows : 
In presenting this bill thus modified, and recommending its 
passage, it is a source of satisfaction to the committee to know 
that it is in precise accordance with the avowed opinions not 
only of the present, but of several preceding Presidents of the 
United States. As far back as December, 1824, Mr. Monroe, 
in his annual message to the two Houses of Congress, strongly 
recommended the propriety of establishing a military post at 
the mouth of the Columbia river, or at some other point within 
our acknowledged limits. This he did, not only as a protec- 
tion to our then increasing commerce, and to our fisheries, but as 
a protection to all our interests in that quarter, and as a means 
of conciliating the various tribes of Indians throughout our 
northwestern possession. He further added, "that it was 
thought, also, by the establishment of such a post, the inter- 
course between our western States and Territories and the 
Pacific, and our trade with the tribes residing in the interior, 
on each side of the Rocky Mountains, would be essentially 
promoted. Mr. Adams, in his message to the next succeeding 
Congress, follows up this suggestion of Mr. Monroe, and re- 
commends not only the establishment of a military post at or 
near the mouth of the Columbia, but the equipment of a pub- 
lic ship for the exploration of the whole northwestern coast of 
this continent. If these recommendations are limited to the 
protection of our commerce and fisheries, to the trade with 
intermediate Indian tribes, and to the promotion of our in- 
tercourse with the Pacific, it must have been only because at 
that time we had no fixed population there, looking to the per- 
manent settlement of the country for agricultural purposes. 
Since 1824 and 1825, however, we have advanced far beyond 
the then necessities of our people, and are now called upon to 
give the protection of our laws and the benefit of our free in- 
stitutions to those who have made it their permanent abode, 



142 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

and whose purposes are to bring into cultivation that vast por- 
tion of our empire. 

The President of the United States, in his annual message 
at the commencement of the present session, presented these 
altered circumstances in the condition of that country to the 
attention of Congress, and with much cogency recommended 
the very measure which the committee have reported. He says : 
"In the mean time, it is proper to remark, that^many of our 
citizens are either already established in the Territory, or are 
on their way thither, for the purpose of forming permanent 
settlements, while others are preparing to follow; and, in view 
of these facts, I must repeat the recommendations contained 
in previous messages, for the establishment of military posts 
at such places on the line of travel, as will furnish security and 
protection to our hardy adventurers against hostile tribes of 
Indians inhabiting those extensive regions. Our laws should 
also follow them, so modified as the circumstance of the case 
may seem to require. Under the influence of our free system 
of government, new republics are destined to spring up, at no 
distant day, on the shores of the Pacific, similar in policy and 
in feeling to those existing on this side of the Rocky Mountains 
and giving a wider and more extensive spread to the principles 
of civil and religious liberty. 

In the bill which we have reported, it will be found that we 
have responded not only to the opinions of Mr. Monroe and 
Mr. Adams in relation to the establishment of military posts 
but we have adopted the just and proper sentiments of the 
present executive in reference to the increased settlement of 
our population in that distant region. Our people have gone 
to Oregon, and we are only sending our laws after them. It 
might be greater precision, however, to say that our laws had 
preceded them ; that they had been always there, coeval with 
our rights to the country ; and that we are now only proposing 
to give them activity and force by government organization. 
In doing so, we introduce no new policy into the action of the 
federal government. At the time of the establishment of our 
national independence, our population was confined to a com- 
paratively narrow slip of country bordering on the Atlantic. 
As fast, however, as our settlements extended into the West 



TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT FOR OREGON. H3 

in sufficient numbers, new Territories were established. These, 
at first, were confined to the Mississippi river for their common 
western boundary. After the acquisition of Louisiana, the 
same wise and necessary policy has been pursued, observing 
limits, in several cases, but little short of the Rocky Mountains. 
In the rapid march of our empire-republic, the time has now 
arrived for the extension of the same policy beyond those 
mountains, recognising the shores of the Pacific as the only 
final terminus of our dominions. 

The propriety of this extension is dependent, of course, on 
the validity of the title of the United States to the territory 
embraced in the bill. This question we were obliged to meet 
anterior to all action on the subject. In its investigations we 
have looked into the most authentic histories of voyages and 
discoveries on the northwestern coast of America. We have con- 
sulted the opinions of our most distinguished and best-informed 
public men, from Mr. Jefferson down to the present time. We 
have carefully examined all the treaties among the several na- 
tions claiming to have an interest in the subject; not neglect- 
ing to profit by the reports made by Mr. Baylies to the 19th, 
and Mr. Cushing to the 25th Congress, and by the several 
reports and speeches of the late lamented Senator from Mis- 
souri, who had devoted so much of the labor of his great mind 
to the investigation of this subject. The result of all this inves- 
tigation has been a thorough conviction that the United States 
has a good and indefeasible title, as against any foreign power, 
to the country extending east and west from the Rocky Moun- 
tains to the Pacific ocean ; and north and south from the limits 
of Mexico, in latitude 42 degrees north, to those of Russia, in 
latitude 54 degrees 40 minutes north. 

The southern boundry was fixed by the treaty with Spain 
in 1819, commonly called the Florida treaty. By that treaty 
it is agreed that the boundary line between the possessions of 
the two nations west of the Mississippi, after reaching the 
river Arkansas, shall be, " following the course of the south- 
ern bank of the Arkansas to its source in lalitude 42 degrees; 
and thence by that parallel of latitude to the South sea." In 
1828 this line was confirmed by Mexico, as the successor of 
Spain, in a treaty of limits between herself and the United 



144 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

States. Southern boundry is, then, fixed and certain. As to 
the northern one, it was settled at 54 degrees and 40 minutes, 
by a treaty between the United States and Russia, dated 17th 
April, 1824, by which it was agreed that there should not be 
formed by the citizens of the United States, or under the 
authority of the same, any establishment upon the northwest 
coast of America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to the 
north of 54 degrees and 40 minutes of north latitude; and, in 
like manner, none by Russia or her subjects south of the same 
parallel of latitude. 

By virtue of these treaties, Russia on the north, Mexico on 
the South, and the United States on the east, are all agreed 
and well satisfied as to the boundaries of the Oregon country. 
Great Britain alone asserts or pretends any title to it, or any 
part of it, adverse to that of the United States. 

Before we enter upon any examination of her title, we re- 
spectfully beg leave to submit our views on another question 
presented to our consideration. It is contended that the pas- 
sage of the bill now reported would be inconsistent with the 
actual relations of the two governments defined by the conven- 
tion of the 20th October, 1818. The 3d article is as follows : 

" Art. 3. It is agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party 
on the northwestern coast of America, westward of the Stony mountains, shall 
together with its harbors, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers 
within the same, he free and open for the term of ten years from the date of 
the signature of the present convention, to the vessels, citizens, and subjects 
of the two powers. It being well understood, that this agreement is not to 
be construed to the prejudice of any claim which either of the two high 
contracting parties may have to any part of said country ; nor shall it beta- 
ken to affect the claim of any other power or State to any part of said coun- 
try : the only object of the high contracting parties, in that respect, being to 
prevent disputes and differences among themselves." 

The provisions of this article were indefinitely extended by 
the convention of 1827 — with, however, an agreement that it 
should be competent for either, at any time after the 20th Oc- 
tober, 1828, on giving due notice of twelve months to the other 
contracting party, to annul and abrogate said convention. 
The first remark which the committee will submit on the pro- 
visions of the 3d article of the convention of 1718, is, that they 
do not refer to the possession of the territory at all. That pos- 
session had always been in the United States until the war of 



TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT FOR OREGON, 145 

2812. It was then lost by conquest; but it was fully restored 
by the treaty of peace, and the formal surrender of it to the 
United States under that treaty. It was only the right of en- 
tering into the country — into its bays and harbors — for the mere 
purposes of such trade and commerce as was then carried on 
in that region, that was secured to the subjects of Great Britain. 
The same rights might have been extended to any of the ports, 
bays, and rivers of the Atlantic; but if extended in the pre- 
cise words of the convention of 1818, who would have thought 
that Great Britain would have been admitted to the joint occu- 
pancy of Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, the Carolinas, 
and the other States of the Union ? 

If the possession of the territory was in the United States at 
the time of the convention of 1818 — a fact which no one has 
ever attempted to deny — the provision of the 3d section can 
only be regarded as a permission to the subjects of Great 
Britain to participate with ours in the individual rights of trade 
and commerce enjoyed by our own citizens within the territory. 
The bill which is now reported does not eject them from the 
country at all. It does not deprive them of the privilege of en- 
tering into the country, its bays and rivers ; not at all. But it 
even guaranties a fuller and more perfect enjoyment of these 
individual rights, under an organized and well-administered 
system of laws. From extreme caution, and to exhibit towards 
Great Britain the most scrupulous regard for all existing stip- 
ulation, which might be supposed to have an application to 
the subject, the bill proposes a speedy surrender of all British 
subjects who may be charged with any violation of our laws 
to the nearest British authorities having jurisdiction over such 
cases. The permission given to British subjects to participate 
with our own citizens in the enjoyment of personal or individual 
rights within the territory, never can be considered as circum- 
scribing the right of the United Sates to establish a proper 
government for the regulation of all persons inhabiting the 
country, of which she had the undisputed possession. In this 
view,, the provision for delivering up British subjects to their 
nearest tribunals could not have been justly required ; but 
the same has been conceded by the committee, on the scrupu- 
lous principle just adverted to. 
11 



146 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

As to the twelve months' notice required to be given by the 
convention of 1827, the committee do not regard that as at all 
necessary, in order to open the way to such action as is con- 
templated by this bill. The committee do not know that, for 
the purpose of organizing such a government as is now con- 
templated, it is at all important to annul or abrogate that 
convention. That country is large, and there is evidently 
room enough for the subjects and citizens of both countries, 
in the exercise of all their enterprise in trade and commerce. 
All that will be required of them is to conform to the laws, and 
to respect the institutions, which we may establish. Doing 
this, we shall never envy the equal participation in the bene- 
fits and advantages to be derived from a well organized system 
of government. Any possible inconvenience arising from the 
continuance of the convention of 1827, not now anticipated 
by the committee, can, and doubtless will, be looked to by the 
executive, who can at any time abrogate the same, by giving 
the notice contemplated in it. The giving of that notice, be- 
ing a matter of treaty stipulation, belongs, perhaps, exclu- 
sively to the executive ; on whose province there is no occasion 
and the committee have no inclination to intrude. 

In connection with this branch of the subject, the commit- 
tee will advert to the fact, (as it is now understood to be,) that 
negotiations are in progress between the United States and 
Great Britain on the subject of this territory. They conceive 
that this should make no difference in the action of the com- 
mittee. They have to act on the subject as it is now presen- 
ted to them — not as it may be changed or altered hereafter, by 
any future arrangements between the two countries. If the 
United States have now the right to the Oregon country — if 
they have now the sole and undisputed possession of it — if our 
people have now permanent settlements in it, and every day 
suffering for the want of properly-organized government to 
protect the virtuous and restrain the vicious — we ought not to 
withhold our action, under the possibility of some alteration in 
the relations of the two countries in that region, at some uncer- 
tain and indefinite period. That negotiation can still progress; 
and any treaty stipulation inconsistent with our legislation, 
will control it to the extent of such interference. No one, we 



TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT FOR OREGON, 147 

believe, supposes that the pending negotiations can ever result 
in the entire loss of the Oregon country. Enough will doubt- 
less remain of it, under any circumstances, to require the ex- 
tension of our laws in the manner now contemplated. If the 
present negotiation relates (as the committee apprehend it 
does) solely to the ascertainment and settlement of the north- 
ern boundary of the territory, they can anticipate, from no ex- 
amination which they have been able to make, any such loss of 
country in that direction, as will at all affect the propriety of 
the passage of the bill which is now presented to the House. 

There is enough, doubtless, for that negotiation to act upon, 
without resorting even to the supposition that any portion of 
our territory south of latitude fifty-four degrees forty minutes 
north may be lost. We propose the extension of our laws 
fully up to that latitude, and will now submit the grounds on 
which we maintain that the United States has a full and inde- 
feasible right and title to that point. We adopt as our own, 
and submit to the house, the views of a former committee on 
the question of title ; which we believe must carry conviction 
to every disinterested and impartial mind. 



February 4th. 

Mr. A. V. Brown supposed it was necessary that he should 
submit some few remarks in reply to the gentleman from Mas- 
sachusetts, [Mr. Adams.] The gentleman seemed to think that 
some days ago he treated him with some degree of rudeness in 
declining to postpone this bill to a day that he proposed. In 
reply to a suggestion at the time made by the gentleman, he 
said that he had no disposition to drive this bill through, but 
that it was subject to the direction of the members of the 
House, who could hasten or retard its progress as they pleased. 
What was the reason the gentleman gave for wishing to post- 
pone it? Why, there was a book which very few had heard 
of, that gave so much information on this subject that every 
difficulty would be settled by getting it, and he wanted to delay 



143 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

the action of the House till that book was procured. Why, 
this book had been published years ago by order of the Senate, 
and every member of the House could get it by application 
for it. But it was said there was a new and enlarged edition 
of it, which gave new lights which were not found in the first 
edition. But who did not know that the reports made to the 
House by Mr. Pendleton, and by Mr. Cushing, on this very 
subject, contained all the information that could be given on 
it? Indeed, either of them was far more valuable than Mr. 
Greenhow's book, and could be had by any member that 
desired, at a moment's warning. Again, the gentleman said 
that he was satisfied that our title to the country was indispu- 
table. Why, then, wait for any body's book? The gentleman 
quoted him as saying that he considered it the duty of the 
executive only to give the twelve month's notice to end the 
joint occupancy, and that this House had nothing to do with 
it. Now, the gentleman did not explain his (Mr. B.'s) position 
correctly. He did say that the executive was competent to 
give the notice, without the action of the House, having more 
information on the subject than they could possibly have ; but 
he did not say the House had no right to give the notice. 
That was a point which the committee did not touch on in their 
report, and which he did not make in his remarks of yesterday. 
The gentleman from Massachusetts had read a portion of 
the correspondence between the two countries at a former 
period, and by examination of the report, part of which had 
been read, it would be found that the committee had adverted 
to the same correspondence, and incorporated in their report 
the material, part of that correspondence— or such as they 
supposed would have a material influence on the question. 
He wished the gentleman from Massacuhusetts had read a 
little further than he did oi t that correspondence. On the 23d 
page of the report the committee speak as follows: 

'•' The injustice done to the United States by the double use which Great 
Britain makes of the Hudson's Bay Company, was strongly urged by Mr. 
Gallatin, in his conferences with the British ministers on the subject, in 
1826 and 1827. The British ministers were not insensible to the force of 
his objections. And the following passage of Mr. Gallatin's letter of De- 
cember 20th, 1826, is important in. its bearing upon the question of what 



TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT FOR OREGON. 



149 



legislation Congress may adopt, without infringement of the treaty rela- 
tions of the two powers: 

" ' The establishment of a distinct territorial government on the west 
side of the Stony Mountains would also be objected to as an attempt to 
exercise exclusive sovereignty. I observed that, although the Northwest 
company might, from its being incorporated, from the habits of the men 
they employed, and from having a monopoly with respect to trade, so far as 
British subjects were concerned, carry on a species of government without 
the assistance of that of Great Britain, it was otherwise with us. Our 
population there would consist of several independent companies and indi- 
viduals. We had always been in the habit, in our most remote settle- 
ments, of carrying laws, courts, and justices of the peace with us. There 
was an absolute necessity, on our part, to have some species of govern- 
ment. Without it, the kind of sovereignty, or rather jurisdiction, which it 
was intended to admit, could not be exercised on our part.'" 

-Now what follows, the gentleman from Massachusetts did 
not read. 

""It was suggested, and seemed to be acquiesced in, that the difficulty might 
be obviated, provided that the erection of a new territory was not confined 
exclusively to the territory west of the mountains ; that it should be defined 
as embracing all the possessions of the United States west of a line that 
should be at some distance from, and east of the Stony Mountains." 

After commenting on these extracts, the honorable gentle- 
man proceeded. The bill at the last session was drawn in con- 
formity with these suggestions, and the jurisdiction of Iowa 
was proposed to be extended over the Territory of Oregon ; 
but at the present session Iowa was to be admitted into the 
Union, and to take her laws would be inconvenient, if not 
inconsistent. What then, was the committee to do, with the 
prospect of Iowa coming into the Union ? Why, they went 
on to establish a distinct Territory, beginning at the summit 
qf the Rocky Mountains. In this they had departed from the 
letter of the admissions made by the British minister ; but had 
they departed from them in substance ? What had they done ? 
He put the law of 1803 — and it was that law which had de- 
ceived so many gentleman on this floor — it was in that law 
that they pretended to find an exemption of American citizens 
from the operation of British laws. But in 1803 they knew 
that American citizens were not there in any considerable 
numbers ; there were Europeans there, and it was in their 
favor that the exemptions were made. But in 1821 our claims 



150 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

had ripened up, our citizens had gone there, and it became 
necessary to make a new provision. What, then, did the Brit- 
ish Parliament do? Extended the jurisdiction of the laws in 
force in Canada to the Oregon, appointed justices of the peace, 
who, being sent there, had jurisdiction in certain cases ; and 
every man, whether an American citizen or a British subject, 
was subject to the laws passed by the British Parliament. For 
the higher offences, the party committing them was arrested 
and taken to Canada for trial. He invited the attention of 
gentlemen to an examination of the law of 1821, which exten- 
ded the laws of Great Britain over that country, to see if they 
could find one solitary exception in favor of American citizens. 
He hoped they would be able to do it ; he should rejoice at the 
discovery if such a provision could be found; but he could not 
find it himself, and he questioned if anybody else could. 

He now came to the question of what they proposed to do 
by this bill. Was it anything which the British Parliament 
had not done by its legislation ? He maintained that they 
proposed to do no more than the British Parliament had done 
— not one solitary thing. Was it said that the British Parlia- 
ment had not sent governors to Oregon ? Be it so : but the 
British governor was in Canada, and, by virtue of his office, 
he was governor of Oregon, though not actually being in the 
territory ; and when we appoint a governor and send him to 
the place where his duties are to be performed, there was no 
difference in point of principle. The English Judges, too, re- 
side in Canada, and ours would reside in Oregon. Was there 
any actual difference in principle in that? Were we carrying 
out rights beyond what Great Britain had done ? Where and 
in what respect, were we going one inch beyond the example 
which England had set us ? And if we do not go beyond that 
example, where is the cause for war? What provication do 
we give for war ? Not the slightest; and Great Britain could 
not declare war against us for anything contained in this bill, 
unless she sought a war for another purpose, and if that was 
her desire, he would say, let her have it — in the first day and 
hour that she desired it, let her have it. Since he had had a seat 
on this floor, he had seen more than one day when he could 
have said, let her have it. Who did not remember the case of 



TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT FOR OREGON. 151 

the " Caroline," when British soldiers were rowed with muffled 
oars to our shores, and cut loose an American steamer which 
they sent blazing down the stream and over the cataract of the 
Niagara, with all her unfortunate inmates ? The waters of the 
Niagara have been long since closed over that ill-fated vessel, 
but a cry for vengeance came up from the deep and troubled 
waters in which the Caroline was engulfed. For the present, 
however, he would let that pass. Why should England talk of 
war ? Was it because we take possession of the disputed 
Territory just as she has done ? He could not believe that 
such a result would ensue. 

He then proceeded to say that he had never seen an Ameri- 
can Congress take hold of an American question with abetter 
spirit than on this occasion, and therefore he had heard, with 
pleasure, the suggestions which had been made, come from 
what quarter they might. One suggestion offered and reasoned 
upon by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, had convinced him, 
and he adopted the suggestion, and had prepared an amend- 
ment precisely in accordance therewith. It had been said, you 
are breaking the third article of the convention by passing 
this bill ; but this he denied. But again, it was urged, suppose 
it should be so understood, and Great Britain should believe 
that they intended to do so. Well, to negative this, he had 
prepared a provision reciting that third article, and then guar- 
ding against such a conclusion. Now he supposed that would 
obviate all objections, but another gentleman rose and said, 
oh ! you are taking a step that Great Britain never intended 
nor contemplated. What was that? Oh! you are dividing 
out and partitioning the land, regardless of the rights of 
Great Britain. To this he replied, that they knew very well 
that any grant of land must be subject to the future adjust- 
ment of the two countries ; but if they would rather have it so 
expressed in the bill, be it so ; and to meet that he had pre- 
pared a provision. But how would that operate? Were the 
people who were settling south of the Columbia river ever to 
be disturbed under any circumstances? Were we ever to 
lose a foot of land there ? There was not an American citi- 
zen whose heart would not leap in his breast at the bare idea 
of making any concessions south of the Columbia river. But 



152 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES, 

suppose our citizens should settle north of the Columbia river 
beyond forty-nine degrees of north latitude, or fifty, fifty-one, 
fifty-two, fifty-three, fifty-four, and beyond the line that might 
be drawn whenever this question shall be settled by negotiation, 
or by war if they pleased : the moment our title failed to the 
part on which those citizens resided, they would drop down to 
our undisputed territory and say they had lost their pre-emp- 
tion right ; and who would say that this government could not 
at once give them another pre-emption right as good? Did that 
embarrass the case? Not at all. Who was there, then, that 
was not willing to give a pledge to every man that should go 
to that country and cultivate it, of a liberal renewal of pre- 
emption right elsewhere, if he should be dispossessed by the 
establishment of the British title to the land he might occupy ? 
Would that injure the British government? Could she take 
offence at such a provision in our law ? 

From these remarks the committee would perceive that he 
had availed himself of every suggestion which had been made, 
so as to make the bill acceptable to the House, as he thought 
it would be acceptable to the British government. He came 
next to speak of the suggestions made by the gentleman from 
Massachusetts, which coming from him, were of great weight 
and importance. The objection was, that they had started at 
the wrong end, and that they should give the notice first. Now 
he (Mr. B.) did not so understand it. If that were the cor- 
rect course, he would, with pleasure, follow in the wake of the 
gentleman from Massachusetts ; but he did not so understand 
it. Why did they propose to pass this measure? Simply be- 
cause our people have gone to that country, and are there 
without government, and we want to give them the benefit of 
our laws. They had not fled from their country, nor from our 
laws and institutions; they have carried all with them, and what 
was now proposed, was, to give them the benefits of our laws 
in their urgent necessities. Some gentlemen said they had got 
judges there already ; but they were laws for organized British 
society, and they were British judges. They preferred our 
laws to British laws. But it was said they had organized their 
own society, and had framed their own laws. True, they had 
for some government was necessary ; but nothing could induce 



TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT FOR OREGON. 153 

them to adhere to their own organization, but our refusals to 
meet their wants and necessities. But if they should first give 
the notice of twelve months, they would be met with the plea 
that the British settlers could not abandon the territory, be- 
cause they had contracts made and business unsettled. And 
if they gave notice to quit, and the British did not then quit, 
what would be the next step ? Would they drive away the 
foreign settlers ? In such a case would they not resist on the 
ground of the necesssity to stand in self-defence. This bill, 
however, avoided the evils of a different course, and gave to 
American citizens a government and the protection of laws 
which the British settlers enjoyed. 

The honorable gentleman recapitulated some of the pro- 
visions of this bill for the trial of persons guilty of crimes, to 
show their liberality; and that they must prove unexceptiona- 
ble to Great Britain. He said he was careful that they should 
do nothing wrong ; and then he could bid any power defiance. 
He confessed that he was afraid of an unjust war with Eng- 
land or any other nation ; but when we had justice on our 
side, he would quail before no power on this globe ; and this 
would account for the zeal which he felt on this and on the 
Texas question too. He wanted Texas because England 
wanted it. Great Britain did not desire any increase of our 
power which would make us more formidable to the nations 
of the earth. The stars of our republic shone so bright that 
they have attracted the envy of foreign nations : the crowned 
heads of Europe looked upon our prosperity with amazement; 
for they knew the impression which our example produced on 
their own population, and hence they were desirous to destroy 
the influence of our example. 

He wanted Oregon for the same purpose ; he wanted our 
population to spread from ocean to ocean- — from the Aroos- 
took on the north to the Rio Del Norte on the South — a mag- 
nificent empire which should strike terror and dismay to the 
enemies of our institutions, and of republican forms of gov- 
ernment. Give us this bill, (said Mr. B.,) guarded cautiously 
benevolently guarded, as it was ; give us Texas, and we will 
have an empire before us which will fill every American heart 
with pride and with joy. 



SPEECH, 

In the House of Representative, March 17, 1840 — On the Resolu- 
tion reported from the Committee of Elections hy Mr. Camp- 
bell, their chairman, proposing to print all the testimony con- 
nected with the New Jersey contested election, and the amend- 
ment of Mr. Garland, of Louisiana, to print other testimony 
referred to that committee, subsequent to its report : 



Mr. Brown desired that the resolution might be read, on 
which this exciting and extraordinary debate had been going 
on. He desired it, that the House might be brought back to 
the precise character of the proposition before it — not one 
touching the merits of the controversey ; not one involving the 
truth of the facts set forth in the report, nor the action of the 
House, in admitting five of these gentlemen to temporary 
membership on this floor. All these things have passed by — 
the report has been made — it has been sanctioned by the 
House, and the five gentlemen are now here present in their 
seats. All the testimony on which these proceedings have 
taken place, has been reported to the House, and the commit- 
tee now stand here desiring and insisting that it should be prin- 
ted. But these papers, now desired to be also printed, were not 
considered by the committee, because they were never before 
them in the form of evidence. Not one solitary member ever 
saw the inside of that package until after the report was made. 
It was sealed up from all inspection, and therefore constituted 
no part of the foundation of this report. Why then should it 
be printed with it, as a part of it, when in truth and fact it 



ON THE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION. 155 

was never opened here, nor referred to the committee, until 
after its report had been made ? We desire all the testimony 
before the committee, and on which the report was founded, to 
be printed and sent out with it, in order that the people of this 
country may be able to see and determine whether the com- 
mittee and this House have done right in the New Jersey 
case. To print these depositions, which came in after the re- 
port, can shed no light on the propriety of what has been done. 
They are now before the committee, and should continue there 
until the remaining depositions shall arrive, and the whole 
case come on for final hearing on the ultimate rights of the 
party. They will then be printed in connection with the others, 
and go to the world as a part of the New Jersey case, and re- 
ceive that attention which they may be found to deserve. 

But it is useless to dwell on this point ; for it is evident to 
every one that the proposition is submitted only for the pur- 
pose of furnishing an occasion to assail the conduct of the 
majority of the committee who made the report, and of the 
House by whom it was confirmed. Sir, it is now notoriously 
a question of crimination. Having failed to get in the five 
claimants commissioned by the Governor, and having further 
failed in excluding the five who actually received the majority 
of the votes, gentlemen turn round, in the rage and fury of 
their disappointment, and seek to criminate the conduct of all 
those by whom their purposes have been frustrated. Proud in 
the consciousness of having done right, as one member of the 
committee, I stood ready to meet any and every charge that 
might be preferred against me, or any of the honorable gen- 
tlemen who had concurred in making this report. I expected 
those charges, if made at all, would surely be preferred by 
members of the committee — by those whose situation enabled 
them to form an opinion worth submitting to the American 
people. Judge, then, Mr. Speaker, my surprise, when I saw 
the gentleman from Maryland suddenly thrust himself into 
this controversy, which I had considered as a sort of " family 
affair," and gravely prefer a long list of charges against the 
majority of the committee. I do not deny the gentleman's 
right to do so, nor do I question the sincerity of his declara- 
tion, that, in his opinion, there had been something wrong in 



156 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

the action of the committee. But, sir, I now admonish him in 
advance not to be too precipate in his conclusions — his situ- 
ation has not been favorable to a correct knowledge of the 
facts ; and I pledge myself now here, to the House, and the 
nation, that he has not preferred one solitary charge that can- 
not be triumphantly refuted. 

The gentleman told us that he had looked into our journals, 
but was constrained to admit that he had only done so sliglilly. 
Now, sir, this very admission ought to have suggested to him 
to have been more sparing in his denunciations. What did 
the gentleman think he could examine the contents of this 
huge volume in a single night ? That he could comprehend 
the profound legal learning of the gentleman from New York, 
the skillful special pleading of the gentleman from Alabama, 
and the willy tact of him from Virginia, on so slight and so 
hasty an inspection ? The gentleman can have no sort of 
idea of the profound mysteries of this new and interesting 
work. 

With no better opportunity than this to obtain correct infor- 
mation, the gentleman selected one portion of the journal here, 
and another there — a fragment from one place, and a scrap 
from another, and drawing his conclusions from such disjointed 
premises, proclaims to the country " that there was something 
wrong in the committee room." Sir, I expect there was some- 
thing wrong in that committee room — something wrong in this 
House — something wrong before the Governor and Privy Coun- 
cil of New Jersey. But I stand here to say, after a full ex- 
amination of this case, that that wrong is not on the side of 
those who have maintained the rights of the people of New 
Jersey against its Governor and Council. 

Let it be remembered that no gentleman has ventured to 
dispute the great and controlling fact which constitutes the 
sum and substance of this report, to wit t who received the 
greatest number of votes cast in the New Jersey election. No 
man has, because no man could deny it. The parties holding 
the Governor's commission, so far from denying that their com- 
petitors did receive the majority of votes, in their written 
pleadings have substantially admitted it. They have so plain- 
ly admitted it, that the committee need not have called a sin- 



OX THE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION. 1 57 

gle witness in the case ; they need not have taken a solitary 
deposition ; but, walking into this hall, might have laid that 
written admission on your table, and said to you : " Behold 
the fact which you required us to ascertain !" In one hour 
after the pleadings of the parties were closed, the committee 
might have made the report which they have made, and the 
House have taken the very action they have taken, on the 
parties' own admission : If it be asked why such a report was 
not made sooner, under such circumstances, my answer is, 
that those who are now so much abused as an unjust and over- 
bearing majority, never became a majority until the orders of 
this House had been given, commanding this report to be 
made. Until then we were in a minority, incapable of con- 
trolling anything. Our propositions were voted down or stricken 
out, or so altered and amended as to make us finally repudiate 
them ourselves. This was effected by the chairman generally 
voting and acting with the other party on all questions involv- 
ing a report on the state and condition of the poll-books. At 
length, however, the instructions of the House were given: — 
the chairman yielded obedience to them, and we stood released 
from that thraldom to which we had been so long subjected. 

[Here the morning hour having expired, the House went into Com- 
mittee of the Whole on the Treasury Note bill.] 



March 18th.. 
Mr. Brown of Tennessee resumed. I will now proceed, in 
continuation of the remarks began on yesterday. I then com- 
plained, and yet think I had a right to complain, that the pro- 
ceedings of the committee had been so harshly and unjustly 
condemned by the honorable gentleman from Maryland. It 
did seem to me, that when this controversy had been narrowed 
down to the mere crimination of the majority whilst in the com- 
mittee room, that the gentleman should have left it to be 



158 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

settled by the members of the committee. I advert to this 
topic again, in order to assure the gentleman that I refer the 
injustice he has done, which / know he has done to the ma- 
jority, more to the want of personal information than to any dis- 
position to send forth to the world a groundless imputation of 
our motives and conduct. But I may be mistaken as to the ex- 
tent of the gentleman's information. He may have learned from 
others, in whom he confides, much more than he could find 
out from his necessarily slight and superficial inspection of our 
journals. However this may be, the gentleman day after day, 
indulged in a freedom and boldness of crimination, that demands 
a prompt and decisive refutation. Scattered, as they were, 
through a very long speech, I feared at one time, that I should 
not be able to collect and arrange them. But he was kind 
enough yesterday to recapitulate, and to condense them into a 
small compass. 

His first charge w r as, that the committee had failed to dis- 
charge its duties, as pointed out by the standing rules of the 
House giving existence to the committee. The rule declares : 

" That it shall be the duty of the Committee of Elections to examine 
and report upon the certificates of election, or other credentials, of mem- 
bers returned to serve in this House." 

Now I desire to know whether the gentleman from Mary- 
land did mean to make the impression on this House, that the 
committee had not performed that portion of its duty ; that 
we had not examined the commissions, and decided on them. 
If these were the gentleman's objections to our proceedings, it 
was easy to show that he was mistaken. 

[Mr. Jenifer here explained.] 

If I understand the gentleman's explanations, I have not 
misapprehended his meaning. I refer him to the resolution 
under which this case was referred to the committee. That 
goes beyond tbe standing rules, and requires us to ascertain 
and report who were entitled to occupy the five vacant seats 
from the State of New Jersey. This opened up the whole 
question : the commissions, the returns, the poll books ; in fact 
every thing on which the right of membership depended. 
Now, sir, it has been asserted here, and the public press has 
spread it all over this country that the committee paid but lit- 



ON THE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION. 159 

tie or no attention to the Governor's commissions ; that they 
were treated with no respect ; regarded as amounting to no sort 
of evidence in the case whatever. This bold and reckless as- 
sertion has no doubt gone where no refutation of mine can 
ever overtake it. But, as far as I am able, I will send the 
denial after it. I will send the journal, too, so soon as it shall 
be printed, beneath whose withering rebuke such assertions 
cannot stand. Every member of that committee must know, 
and does know, that the credentials occupied a large portion 
of our attention, and were the subject of anxious and serious 
consideration. I refer to page 79 of that journal : 

" Whereupon Mr. Botts moved the following resolution : 

" Resolved, That this committee will now proceed to decide on the legal- 
ity and validity of the commissions granted by the governor of New Jersey." 

It being the first question presented and the whole testimony 
relating to that branch of the subject having been read. The 
same fact of these commissions having been read and con- 
sidered is indelibly engraved on other pages of this book, and 
leaves no ground for cavil or dispute. I shall have frequent 
occasion to refer to this book, and I must beg pardon of the 
gentleman from Virginia in advance, if I should happen to 
designate it as " Botts' journal." I can hardly open it any 
where, without coming across his name, standing in bold relief, 
in almost perpetual conspicuosity. Besides this, the gentleman 
was admittedly the chief architect of this large superstructure; 
I mean the plainer and more substantial (if any be substantial) 
parts of the work. The ornamental parts were executed by 
the gentleman from New York and Alabama, with the excep- 
tion of a little fretwork by the gentleman from Connecticut. 

On the authority of this record, then, I aver that the commis- 
sions of the Governor were read — that they were considered — 
were argued at great length by the parties, and a distinct vote 
taken on their validity and sufficiency. Yet, sir, the country has 
been told, often told, directly the reverse. The majority of 
this committee, at this very moment, stand arraigned at the bar 
of public opinion, for having given to the commissions no at- 
tention, and for having treated with silent indifference, if not 
contempt, the broad seal of one of the old and gallant thirteen 



160 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

States of the Union. On what evidence have they been ar- 
raigned ? On none. Bold assertion was substituted for evi- 
dence, and reckless invective supplied the place even of pro- 
bability or presumption. By what evidence is the charge dis- 
proved ? By this record, and by the personal knowledge of 
every member of the committee. 

The gentleman from Virginia, from the beginning, had enter- 
tained the opinion that nothing but the commissions could 
entitle the gentlemen to their seats. He had avowed and en- 
forced that opinion in an elaborate argument on this floor, be- 
fore the committee had ever sat upon the case. Was it likely, 
therefore, that he would permit the questions growing out of 
those commissions to lie neglected anc 1 unnoticed before the 
committee? So far from it, sir, the supremacy of the commis- 
sions seemed to fill all his thoughts ; it was the beginning and 
the end of his whole judgment in the case. 

Mr. Speaker, I come now to the second charge preferred by 
the gentleman from Maryland against the majority of the com- 
mittee. He says that the committee passed a resolution that 
it would not proceed to determine the question of ultimate 
right between these parties until the second 1 Monday in April, 
and that this report is in violation of that resolution. Well, 
sir, the resolution says that the committee would not decide 
on the question of ultimate or final right, until the time desig- 
nated. Have we decided on such right? Have we reported 
on it ? Not at all. We have only decided and reported on 
the right of present occupancy of the contested seats, whilst 
the inquiry as to the ultimate right was going on. The ultimate 
right depended on the purgation of the polls. In New 
Jersey the vote is given by general ticket ; the whole State 
would have to be ransacked in search of illegal votes, which 
would necessarily require much time. The question, therefore, 
arose who should be the sitting members during the period 
allowed for collecting this testimony ? The report made only 
covers that point of present occupancy, and has no reference 
to the ultimate rights of the parties at all. Where, then, is 
the violation of this resolve of the committee ? The gentle- 
man should have spared his reflections on the committee on 
another ground* He should have remembered that even this 



ON THE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION. 101 

report on the present occupancy of the seats was not made un- 
til we received the express and peremptory orders of this 
House. When these were given, all that was left to us was 
the simple duty of obedience. Will the gentleman censure us 
for that ? Would he have had us to set up our own resolves 
of a prior date, in open defiance of the resolves and commands 
of this House ? Surely the gentleman could not have matured 
this objection in his own mind before he preferred it against 
the committee. But he evidently preferred this only as induce- 
ment to his third and most objectionable and groundless charge 
of all. He says that the committee having adopted that reso- 
lution and sent off the claimants in search of their testimony, 
it was a violation of its faith and solemn pledges to have made 
this report without giving them notice. True, he attempts to 
draw a distinction in favor of the committee, by regarding it 
only as accessory, whilst he looks upon the House as the 
principal in the perpetration of this foul deed of violated faith. 
Sir, I reject the distinction. If the charge were true, I should 
consider the magnitude of the offence as constituting all prin- 
cipals concerned in its commission. But, sir, is that charge 
true ? The gentleman preferred it in a tone and manner so 
excited, that he found it necessary to explain or apologize to 
the House for it. He illustrated his opinion of the conduct of 
the committee and the House, by referring to his frequent 
agreements to pair off with members of this House, until a 
specified time, and declared that he should have considered 
himself dishonored by a violation of any such pledge or agree- 
ment. All this, sir, was reiterated through a speech of several 
days' length — reporters and letter writers have sent the 
charges to the public press, and that has distributed them 
to every portion of this continent. Denunciation and asser- 
tion may achieve a temporary triumph over truth and evidence. 
But it will be only a temporary one. This record shall go 
forth to the world. It shall follow up these high charges of the 
gentleman from Maryland, and show to the American people 
how destitute of foundation they are. I refer to page 127, 
where it appears that the committee reserved the right to make 
a preliminary report, ivhencver they might think proper to do 

so. To page 129, where a proposition to that effect was made 
12 



162 CONGRESS I9XAL SPEECHES, 

by Mr. Medill. To page 147, where another was made by Mr, 
Fisher. To page 138, which shows that the parties on both 
sides were then present, and heard the discussions, and wit- 
nessed the action of the committee on the proposition. How, 
then, can it be said or pretended that they left the city without 
notice that a preliminary report was contemplated? They 
knew that the right to make such a report had been always 
reserved. They knew that every attempt to take away that 
right had been defeated. They knew that making of such a 
report would not interfere with their preparations on the ques- 
tion of ultimate right. They knew that they would have to go 
home to take the balance of their testimony, whether such a 
report was made or not. They knew all this. I say they knew 
more. They knew that a resolution instructing the committee 
to make such a report, had been introduced by Mr. Turney of 
Tennessee, and was then actually pending before the House. 
These facts are all recorded, and yet it is pretended that they 
retired to New Jersey in conscious security, confiding in the 
honor and integrity of the committee, and of this House ! 
They were deceived and taken by surprise ! suprise about 
what ? surprised by a report, declaring that their opponents 
had received a higher number of votes than themselves in the 
New Jersey election? That was impossible, for they had 
never denied the fact; they had substantially admitted it. 
The records of New Jersey demonstrated it beyond all possi- 
bility of denial. 

Sir, I have no patience for a further exposure of this ground- 
less charge of broken pledges and violated faith. I pass to 
another charge, equally unmerited and equally unfounded. 
We are charged with making our report with unjust precipita- 
tion, without ever having examined the testimony referred to 
us by the House. That, in so doing, the committee had prac- 
tised a fraud on this House, and the nation, who had a right 
to expect that we had examined all the testimony in the case; 
others have made the same imputation on the proceedings of 
the committee, and I will, therefore, appeal again " to the law 
and the testimony;" to the gentleman's (from Virginia) 
own book; to that favorite record, which he watched and 
guarded with more care than all the other members of the 



ON THE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION. 163 

committee beside. The testimony was gone over twice. The 
first time to read the evidence, to hear the parties on it, and to 
note down the objections made by them. This may be all 
seen on the journal, from page 70 to page 89. The second 
time it was gone over, was for the purpose of deciding on the 
various points made by the parties, touching the admissibility 
and competency of the evidence in the case. Our proceedings 
for this purpose may be seen from page 96 to 126. The tes- 
timony was examined under the following resolution : 

"Resolved, That we will now take up the testimony which has been re- 
ferred to this committee in the New Jersey case." It was taken up with- 
out any limitation or qualified purpose whatsoever. On page 70, we find 
this entry : " And thereupon the committee proceeded to the hearing of the 
testimony" and " the certificates of the Governor of New Jersey were read." 
Again on page 75, " And the following documents being the same that 
were referred, &c, were severally taken up and read." On page 79, maybe 
found the following entry : 

" Mr. Botts moved the following resolution : 

"Resolved, That this committee will now proceed to decide on the legality 
and validity of the commissions granted, &c, it being the first question 
presented, and the whole testimony relating to that branch of the subject 
having been read." 

On page 81: " The paper No. 13, was then taken up; and 
page 73 : " And thereupon paper No. 13 was read." This 
same paper, No. 13, relating to the polls at South Amboy was 
again taken up and rejected, Mr. Botts only, of all the commit- 
tee, voting for it. It is further shown by the journals " that 
their being no further testimony before the committee, Mr. 
Botts moved the following resolution, &c." The different 
portions of testimony were designated by numbers, and the re- 
cord shows in relation to every one of them, " that they were 
read." In going over the testimony the second time, we heard 
the parties on the various objections made and noted down the 
first time, and decided whether each number was admissible 
or competent testimony. Those depositions which were rejected 
were laid aside, the parties avowing that they desired and in- 
tended to take them over again. 

It is on this ground that gentlemen on the other side have 
fallen into a great error. They have contended that the com- 
mittee had never heard or considered the testimony, except as 



1C4 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

it relates to the question of competency. I have already read 
to the House the resolution under which it was taken up and 
considered. It contained no limitation of purpose whatsoever. 
On the contrary, an attempt was made and strenuously insisted 
on, that it should be taken up and considered for that pur- 
pose only ; but the limitation was stricken out and the inqury 
gone into unrestricted. But it seems that its sufficiency was 
never passed upon by the committee in public vote, so as to 
constitute a hearing or consideration of the testimony in re- 
ference to the making up of a report. Was such a thing ever 
heard of in a committee room as an abstract question of suf- 
ficiency ? Sufficiency for what ? You could never determine 
that, until a distinct action on the case was proposed, and then 
each member would decide for himself, whether the testimony 
was sufficient to sustain such a proposition. Look to analogies 
from the proceedings of our courts of justice. Our Judges 
and Chancellors decide and pass on all questions of the com- 
petency or admisibility of evidence, raised by counsel in the 
progress of a cause, but you can never learn their opinions on 
its sufficiency until they pronounce their judgment or decree in 
the case. That judgment or decree will of course be accord- 
ing to their opinions of the sufficiency of the testimony to sus- 
tain it; but no separate or distinct judgment is passed upon 
it. It is a silent process of the mind, unannounced, and only 
to be inferred from the nature of the decision made. The 
verdict of a jury on the issue of guilty or not guilty, evinces 
the opinion of the jury of the sufficiency or insufficiency of the 
evidence ; but it is only in the act of rendering that verdict, 
that a jury could be called on or considered as expressing 
such opinions. So, sir, of the proceedings of this committee. 
This testimony having been taken up without restriction — 
having been heard as competent in the case, would be treas- 
ured up in each member's mind until some report or other 
action on it was called for, and then each would decide ( by a 
silent process of his own mind) for himself, whether the evi- 
dence was sufficient to sustain and justify such report or other 
action. Thus it is, sir, in the face of this analogy from the 
practice of the courts and against the very reason and nature 
of the case, gentlemen on the other side have often exclaimed, 



ON THE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION. 165 

Where is the evidence that the sufficiency of this testimony was 
ever examined and decided by the committee? My answer is 
still given from this record : The vote on the following resolu- 
tion was a decision on the sufficiency of the testimony. 

" Mr. Brown introduced the following : 

" Resolved, That the report just read be adopted." 

The vote on this resolution was a test of every member's 
opinion of the sufficiency of the evidence ; and the first test 
that could have been applied, without a gross violation of all 
parliamentary and judical practice. 

[The morning hour having expired, the House went into Committee 
of the Whole on the Treasury Note bill.] 



March 19th. 

Mr. Brown of Tennessee resumed as follows : 
At the close of my remarks on yesterday I thought that I 
had sufficiently refuted the charge preferred against us of not 
having examined the evidence referred to us by this House. 
The gentleman from Maryland now informs me that his chief 
complaint was and yet is that we did not open and examine 
the depositions now generally known "as the mysterious 
package." I thank the gentleman for any suggestion calculated 
to abbreviate our defence and explanations of this report. 
I think I can satisfy any candid and impartial mind, that said 
package was never before the committee ; that it was never 
there as evidence ; never there in any form or manner, so as 
to enable us to act on its contents. I remember well when it 
made its first appearance in the committee room : it was on 
the day when the committee assembled for the purpose of re- 
ceiving the report which the chairman had been directed to 
prepare, in obedience to the orders of the House. We had 
assembled for f hat special and only purpose. True, we might 



166 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

have met there at any rate. We had met there so often, that 
it is very likely that the mere force of habit might have taken us 
there again. However this may be, when we were assembled, 
it was not for the purpose of re-opening the case, or of taking 
any new order in it, but simply to ascertain whether the chair- 
man had prepared the report, agreeably to the directions of 
the committee, given on the Saturday previous. When so as- 
sembled, and for such purpose only, this mysterious package 
made its appearance. It was brought there by the gentleman 
from Connecticut. It was laid by him on the table at which 
the chairman was sitting. After permitting it to lie there for 
some time, the gentleman said something that called the at- 
tention of the chairman to it. It was found to be a sealed 
package, directed to the Speaker of the House, but to the care 
of the chairman of the committee, and endorsed, " Deposi- 
tions in the New Jersey case." Mr. Smith, moved, informally, 
(not being in writing,) that the chairman should open the pack- 
age. He replied that the package was not directed to him, 
but to the Speaker, and he did not feel at liberty to break open 
its seals, but it being directed to his care, he would deliver it 
to the Speaker as soon as his convenience would admit of it. 
The motion, or proposition, not being in writing, no vote of the 
committee was taking on it. The chairman then read his re- 
port, and I moved that it should be adopted ; and pending 
that motion, the gentleman from Connecticut moved that the 
package should be sent to the Speaker, to be by him opened, 
and an order of reference be obtained from the House. During 
all this time, our proceedings were to stand suspended. It 
might be several days before the order could be obtained from 
the House, and if debate happened to spring upon it, which 
was very probable, it might even be weeks before it was ob- 
tained ; and the instructions of the House to us, to make a 
report forthwith, to be entirely disregarded. The committee 
refused to submit to any further delays ; they confirmed the re- 
port, and ordered it to be submitted to the House. It is for 
this they have been so often and so severely censured by gen- 
tlemen in the course of this debate. It is now said that if the 
committee had examined this package, it would have estab- 
lished a number of illegal votes sufficient to have prevented at 



ON THE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION, 167 

least one of these gentlemen from being admitted to his seat. 
Sir, who ever pretended that this package related to illegal 
votes, until we heard it in debate ? Did the gentleman from 
Connecticut, who presented it, say that it related to illegal 
votes? Did he ever once hint such an idea before the com- 
mittee ? Not at all. There, we were told on the face of his 
own resolution, that it related to the manner of holding the poll 
at South Amboy ; here we are informed that it related to the 
reception of illegal votes. Why this strange discrepancy 
between the information given then, and the complaints made 
now? Sir, I think I can tell you why. 

On the question as to the manner of holding the South 
Amboy polls, gentlemen do not desire to make too prominent 
an issue. These objections stand on too narrow and techni- 
cal a foundation. They therefore fly off in pursuit of a new 
idea — a mere after-thought — which either never occurred to 
themselves, or was suppressed by them at the time this decis- 
ion was made. Let it be remembered, Mr. Speaker, that this 
sealed package was no part of the old testimony. It had 
been recently taken, whilst both parties were engaged in taking 
testimony in New Jersey. They had been allowed until the 
second Monday in April for that purpose. When that time 
should expire, they were expected to return to this city, bring- 
ing with them the depositions which they had taken. Now, sir, 
why was it that this particular deposition had strayed off from 
the others, and been hurried to this city by itself? Why had 
it not been sent to the Speaker of the House, to whom it was 
directed, and as it is expressly required to be by the laws of 
New Jersey. I have those laws now before me, and they ex- 
pressly require that they should have been sent to the Speaker. 
It was not sent by the public mail. When and by whom it 
had been sealed did not appear, and there were no endorse- 
ments to guard its alteration. What is required generally in 
our courts of law and equity in similar cases ? The commis- 
sioner must certify that the deposition was sealed up without 
having been out of his possession, and without alteration. 
If sent by private conveyance the person conveying it must 
certify on oath that he received it from the commissioner, and 
that the same has been unaltered whilst in his possession. 



168 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

The committee did not require all these things to be complied 
with. Indeed, they considered that they had nothing to do 
with all these precautions, because the House, it was to be 
supposed, would guard all these points before they opened 
and referred all such papers to the committee. But, sir many 
of the committee did look with suspicion on this package. It 
had not come through accustomed channels, and it might be 
to avoid the necessary scrutiny, that it had sought to come 
into the committee, through channels unknown to the laws of 
New Jersey, and unsanctioned by parliamentary practice. 

I am free, however, to state, that I never permitted these 
suspicions to fasten on the gentleman from Connecticut per- 
sonally, for having brought them from his lodging to the com- 
mittee room for delivery to the chairman, to whose care they 
were directed. But, sir, they did fasten on the package itself 
— on its abrupt and precipitate transmission to this city, in ad- 
vance of all the other depositions, either then or in the course 
of being taken in the State of New Jersey. These suspicious 
circumstances, as I regard them, no doubt influenced my mind 
to some degree, in refusing to suspend our obedience to the 
orders of the House, and to await the opening and reference 
of the package. But I put that refusal on still higher ground. 
I maintain that that package was never before us in such con- 
dition as to allow official action. It was never before us as a 
committee. Nothing could be properly so, but what had been 
sent through the House and by the House. We had, therefore, 
no right to take action on the paper. That action depended 
solely on the chairman, into whose hands it came, which the 
committee had no right to accelerate or retard, by any order 
on the subject. The gentleman from Maryland, however, as- 
sumes the ground that the chairman had the right to break 
the seal, and to open the package, without presentation to the 
Speaker or any order of the House. The Speaker, however, 
was of a different opinion. Every member of the committee 
present thought differently, except the gentlemen from New 
York and Connecticut. The gentleman from Alabama has 
no recollection of hearing the proposition made, that the chair- 
man should open it ; but, at the same time, he tells you if he 



ON THE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION. 169 

had heard it, he would not have sanctioned the idea for one 
moment. 

[Mr. Crabb here rose and submitted some remarks of explanation.] 

Mr. Brown was glad that the gentleman from Alabama 
had submitted his remarks : he wanted his position to be per- 
fectly understood, for it was one on which he did not intend to 
bestow the slightest censure. 

On the question of sending this package to the Speaker, and 
waiting for its reference and return, only two of the minority 
present voted for it, the gentleman from Alabama not being 
one of them. 

[Mr. Crabb again explained, and said that his vote against sending it, 
was owing to certain recitals on the resolution of the gentleman from Con- 
necticut, which he did not think correct in point of fact.] 

Mr. Brown then read the resolution, and the vote taken on 
it, and said that he meant to furnish the House with the pre- 
cise facts as they had existed, but did not doubt the motive 
which the gentleman had stated, controlled his vote on that 
occasion. 

Mr. Speaker, I have been much astonished at the opinions 
which the gentlemen from Maryland advanced on this part 
of the case. I understand he is a distinguished member of the 
bar, and it is with extreme reluctance that I would undertake 
to question any of his legal opinions. Still I beg leave to sub- 
mit to him a few, very few, cases for his solution. Suppose an 
ordinary letter to be directed to A. B. to the care of C. D.; or 
suppose a letter to be written to the president of the Bank of 
Maryland, to the care of E. F., one of its stockholders or di- 
rectors; or to the clerk and master in chancery at A., to the 
care of the sheriff attendant on the court. Now does the gentle- 
man mean to advance the opinion, that in all these cases, the 
persons to whose care they were directed could lawfully break 
the seals, and publish their contents ? The gentleman's argu- 
ment seemed to affirm that they could, and opens up to my 
mind new principles of law, which have heretofore eluded my 
research. 

I put to the gentleman, in becoming deference, another ques- 
tion; whether, if he be right on the generql principles of the 



HO CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

science, he may not possibly be mistaken in his opinions on 
this point, under the special provisions of the law of New 
Jersey. That law, as I have before remarked, expressly re- 
quires these depositions to be addressed and forwarded to the 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. How comes it, 
then, that any one else can interrupt them — stop their progress 
towards the Speaker, to whom they are required to go — break 
open the seals, make use of their contents, and still invoke the 
law to sanctify and approve the deed? Sir, all this may be so, 
but I must be permitted to say that it challenges a very high 
order of credulity to believe it. At all events, the committee 
did not understand either the general law or the statute of 
New Jersey in that way. They found this package not in your 
hands, but in the hands of the gentleman from Connecticut ; 
not on your table, but on theirs ; not coming direct by the 
public mail, but wandering about first in one man's hands, 
and then in another's, covered by another envelope, which is 
torn away from it ; and having, in fact, none of those safe- 
guards which the law throws around depositions in analogous 
cases. Under these circumstances, the committee determined 
to have nothing to do with the package for the present, but to 
let it reach its ultimate destination, the Speaker's hands, by 
him to be laid before the House, and by the House be referred 
to the committee, in due and regular form. It is now before 
us, and will take its place with the other depositions ; will be 
considered when they are considered; and be allowed its due 
weight in the final report. 

Thus far, Mr. Speaker, most of what I have said has been in 
justification of the conduct of the committee. I wish now to 
say something in vindication of the action of the House in 
requiring this report to be made. The very terms of the reso- 
lution referring this case to the committee, show that it was the 
intention of the House not to leave New Jersey long without 
her full representation on this floor. Present occupancy of 
her vacant seats until the final rights of the parties could be 
ascertained, was evidently intended. It was expected that a 
report on the present right could have been made in a few days, 
or weeks, at farthest. This right depended either on the com- 
missions or the poll books, which, it was thought by the House, 



ON THE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION. 171 

could soon be determined. The final right depended on the 
purgation of the polls in all the townships of the State ; and it 
was known that it would take much time and trouble to perform 
it. These were the known views of the House. Well, sir, the 
case had been before us for about two months, instead of as 
many weeks. Questions of great importance to the country 
were daily arising, and New Jersey stood deprived of her full 
number of Representatives in this hall. The Governor of that 
State seized on the occasion to appeal to the other States of the 
Union. The impression was spreading far and wide, that too 
much delay was taking place in the investigation. During all 
this time, not one word was heard from the committee. True, 
we were seen reparing early and retiring late from the scene of 
our labors. Night after night the burning lamps of our com- 
mittee room attested our industry and devotion to business ; 
but still no signs or tokens of a report being made could be dis- 
covered. Almost every member was asking us when ? 
The vacant and unoccupied seats of New Jersey as we 
passed seemed ready to ask us when ? The country at 
large was loudly addressing to us the same question. 
But still no solitary response could be obtained. Even now 
that we have reported, I can often detect a sort of inquisitive 
curiosity to know what we have been about during all this 
time. I will tell you, sir. We have been making this great 
book — I beg pardon for having almost said " Bott's book" — on 
the commissions of the Governor; on the records of his pro- 
ceedings; in making a computation of the votes on the certifi- 
cate of the Secretary of State, and the written pleadings cf 
the party. We could and ought to have made this report in 
one-fourth part of that time, which we have wasted on tech- 
nical trifles, and in a poor, miserable, and (as I fear the coun- 
try will say) contemptible system of special pleading. 

It was after such delays as this, and in the midst of the uni- 
versal complaint of that delay which I have mentioned, that 
my honorable colleague, Mr. Cave Johnson, submitted his res- 
olution of instructions to report forthwith who received the 
greatest number of votes at the election of ISew Jersey, and 
all the evidence appertaining to that fact. Sir, I shall never 
forget the sensations evidently produced on a portion of the 



I? 2 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

committee by the introduction of that resolution. The pride 
of the gentleman from Alabama, and of the gentleman from 
New York revolted at the word "forthwith!" They revolted 
at the very idea of instant compulsion. The gentleman from 
Connecticut did not care so much about the word " forthwith ;" 
but seemed to shrink with horror from the intrusion of the 
chairman of Military Affairs! In touching and eloquent 
strains, he implored protection from that man of war " with 
glittering helmet, and with nodding plume !" That whole de- 
bate went off on a collateral and false issue, and was evidently 
intended to direct the public mind away from the true merits of 
the proposition. It was said to be indelicate, and even insul- 
ting to the committee, to call on them for a report, which the 
House and the country had been expecting for many weeks, 
with breathless anxiety ! The House was, however, resolved 
to wait no longer, and after amending, adopted the resolution. 
This amendment consisted in the insertion of the word " law- 
ful," before the word "votes." It was proposed by the gentle- 
man from New York, [Mr. Fillmore,] who was in full practice 
on similar motions in the committee room. There, whenever 
it was proposed to ascertain " who received the greatest num- 
ber of votes polled at the New Jersey election," so as to be able 
to report that fact to the House, the gentleman, or some other 
member of the minority, would move to insert the word lawful, 
so as to throw us off from the poll books as they stood at the 
close of the election, into the purgation of the polls. They 
stood on the commissions as the foundation of right to a seat. 
We stood on the poll books that contradicted the commissions, 
and clearly showed that five other persons received the votes 
of the majority. Now, sir, the fair mode of proceeding would 
have been to take a vote on the validity and sufficiency of the 
commissions, and if the majority of the committee of the House 
was found in favor of Messrs. Aycrigg and Co. to place them 
in their seats ; and if no such majority was found, then, to 
have taken a vote on the validity and sufficiency of the poll 
books, and to have placed Messrs. Dickerson, Vroom, etc., in 
their seats, if a majority was found in their favor, I repeat, sir, 
would have been the fair, plainsailing mode of proceeding. 
But it has been denied to us throughout this whole proceeding. 



OX TIIE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION. 



173 



We have been, from time to time, forced off from an examina- 
tion and report on the poll books, showing in fact who were 
elected by the people, and compelled to report on presumptions , 
instead of facts, or give the commissioned gentleman another 
chance, by searching over the State of New Jersey for illegal 
votes. Sir, the motion made here was apart of the same sys- 
tem. But the gentleman did not remember that the word 
lawful could have none of its magic influence on this resolu- 
tion, where there were so many other expressions to command 
and control it. We were ordered to report forthwith, but not so 
as to stop or delay our investigations into the ballot box. So long 
as these expressions continued in the resolutions of instruction, 
the word lawful could be made to apply only to those votes 
cast in the election, which the law and the rules of evidence 
declare lawful, until the contrary be shown by evidence. In 
his zeal and precipancy, and mislead by the effect of the same 
word in dissimilar propositions in the committee room, the 
gentleman from New York failed to follow up his motion to 
insert the word lawful, by other motions to strike out the word 
forthwith, and the whole proviso at the close of the resolution. 
This failure was fatal to his object. It lost every advantage 
which he was seeking to acquire. The gentleman and his 
friends soon perceived it, when they found the whole Demo- 
cratic party of the House still voting for the instructions, not- 
withstanding the insertion of that word. Thereupon the whole 
Whig party, with no remembered exception, voted against it, 
in the face of their own favorite word "lawful." This, sir, is 
the resolution, as finally adopted : 

" Resolved, That the Committee of Elections be authorized to report to 
this House such papers and such of their proceedings as they may desire 
to have printed by order of the House and that they be instructed also to 
report forthwith which five of the ten indviduals claiming seats from the 
State of New Jersey, received the greatest number of lawful votes from the 
whole State for Representatives in the Congress of the United States, at the 
election of 1838 in said State, with all the evidence of that fact in their 
possession : Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be so construed 
as to prevent or delay the action of said committee in taking testimony, and 
deciding the said case on the merits of the election." 

The gentleman from Maryland, as the minority of the com- 
mittee, have complained much of the construction which was 



174 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

given to this resolution by the majority. They have industri- 
ously sought to make the impression that it was resolved to 
put Messrs. Dickinson and Vroom and their associates into 
their seats, right or wrong, on legal or illegal votes. Sir, noth- 
ing can be further from the truth. We have not counted one 
single vote for them which has not been passed upon and de- 
cided to be legal by the constituted authorities of New Jersey, 
the judges and inspectors of elections. They have solmny 
adjudged every vote to be lawful before we have allowed it. 
The law takes their judgment as binding, until the country shall 
be shown by evidence taken in the case. Not only did the 
majority decide that the votes received should be presumed and 
taken as lawful votes, but every member of the minority de- 
cided so with us. They voted without exception for the follow- 
ing resolution : 

" Resolved, That all votes received by authorized officers acting in con- 
formity with the laws, axe prima facie legal." 

Now, sir, we have not counted one solitary vote which was 
not of that description. To escape from this, we are told on 
the other side that the word " lawful" was not used by the 
House in this prima facie or presumptive sense, but referred 
to the final and absolute lawfulness which might be established 
by the evidence. Sir, how can this be so, when the House 
knew that the testimony had not yet been taken — when the 
House knew that the parties had just left the city for the pur- 
pose of taking it — when the House knew that two months had 
been allowed them for that purpose ? How then could they 
have meant to call for a report to be made forthwith, on testi- 
mony not in existence, and which would not be in our posses- 
sion before the second Monday of April next. They must have 
meant that we should report without delay on the lawful votes, 
as they stood as such on the records of New Jersey and the 
testimony before the committee — on the votes which then stood 
as lawful, according to the laws of New Jersey, and not on 
the votes which might hereafter be found legal when the taking 
of the testimony was completed. The House was demanding 
the report only to settle the right of present occupancy, as to put 
one party or the other in their seats, until the final right should 



ON THE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION. 175 

be determined. They therefore called for a report on the evi- 
dence as it then stood, not on the evidence as it might hereafter 
appear. This is put beyond all question by the proviso which 
expressly declares that the inquiry into the merits of the elec- 
tion should not be suspended or prevented. 

The next day the committee met. They settled down on the 
construction of the resolution for which I have contended, 
and ordered the report to be prepared by the Tuesday follow- 
ing (that being Saturday.) On Tuesday the report, as prepared 
by the chairman, was adopted and ordered to be presented to 
the House. It was presented, resisted, debated; but waa 
finally confirmed, and five of the claimants admitted to their 
seats by an overwhelming majority. I again affirm that 
every vote counted in making out that report, stood, at the time 
it was counted, as a good and lawful vote, according to the 
rules of evidence and the laws of the land. But it is true, that 
in making out the report the committee did not, and could not, 
know but what some of the votes counted might hereafter be 
proved to be illegal when the parties returned, on the 2d Mon- 
day in April, from taking their testimoy in New Jersey. We 
were not gifted with the spirit of prophecy so as to know how 
that might be, and the House called for present and immediate 
action, and did not choose to wait the developments of the 
future. But whatever doubt might have existed before as to 
the correctness of our construction of its orders, they must be 
removed by the subsequent action of the House. When the 
report came, it was resisted on the express ground that we had 
misconstrued the resolution of instruction. The question waa 
debated and considered by the House. Surely the gentlemen 
do not mean to deny that the House understood its own orders. 
Well, what was its decision? It sanctioned our construction 
by confirming our report. Before the House we were charged 
with stupidity and mental delusion; now nothing can save the 
House itself from the same unmerited denunciation. What, 
sir, after all, have we done ? Nothing but what the Governor 
of New Jersey himself declared we ought and should do. 
Hear his declarations, made at the time when he was cleaving 
down the rights of his own people. " But it will be asked, with 
force and propriety, is a candidate to lose his seat in Congress 



1 76 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

because a country clerk does not make a return of the votes ? 
Certainly not. If, through inadvertance or by design, any 
votes have not been returned by the clerk, it is in the power of 
the House of Representatives, in their discretion, to allow these 
votes, and give the seat to the person who, with these votes, 
may be elected." Well, what have we done ? The votes of 
Millville and South Amboy had not been returned, or rather 
had not been counted. The committee and the House have 
counted them, and have given the seats accordingly. Precisely 
what Governor Pennington then said we ought and would do. 
Let me tell gentlemen we have not only done this, but we have 
done more. We have done what Governor Pennington ought 
then to have done, but which he did not and would not do. 
He knew that the clerks of Middlesex and Amboy had not 
sent up all the returns of all the townships of their respective 
counties, and yet he would not send an express after them as 
the law directed. He knew that the votes of Millville and 
South Amboy had not been included in their computations, 
and if included would have changed the result. He knew, in 
other words, that Messrs. Aycrigg & Co. had not received "the 
highest number of votes " as required by the laws of New Jer- 
sey? yet he gave them commissions at declaring them " to 
have been elected," contrary to the truth of the case and the 
laws of the State. In the commissions which he gave, he could 
not and dare not say, that those to whom they had been given, 
had received the highest number of votes. He therefore intro- 
duced the word " elected," not known in the laws of New Jer- 
sey. Who is " elected," is a compound, and often a difficult 
question to be determined, and is left under the Constitution in 
such a case, as this, to be decided by the House of Representa- 
tives : But " who received the highest number of votes " in an 
election, is a simple matter of arithmetical computation, 
and has been entrusted to the Eexcutive of ~Ke\\ Jersey as 
the returning officer. He has made a return, at open war 
with the facts of the case, and has only offered to an in- 
sulted people the poor consolation that the outrage he 
was committing was within the correcting powers of this 
House. We have corrected them. We have restored to the 
people of Kew Jersey the great and fundamental right of self- 



ON THE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION. 1 77 

government, of which their own Governor, in an evil hour of 
partisan madness, had deprived them. In restoring to them 
the high guarantees of the Constitution, we have met withrevil- 
ings and reproaches at every stage of our progress. Misrepre- 
sentation have followed upon our footsteps, and we have been 
held up, in the view of many of our misguided fellow-citizens, 
as a lawless and tyranical majority, ready and willing to sacri- 
fice every thing on the altar of parisan idolatry. The minority 
who acted with us have given occasion to much of this news- 
paper defamation. That minority submitted a counter report, 
which they have laid in the form of an appeal before the 
American people. In that report and appeal, they have cast 
imputations on the majority of the committee and the House, 
which it is now my purpose to repel. 

The minority have been pleased to represent that this House 
has perpetrated a daring outrage in putting five men into their 
seats " who presented no return, no credentials, no commis- 
sions." Why, Mr. Speaker, this is no new thing under the sun. 
Look at that book on contested elections. There you will find 
from fifty to one hundred cases of the same kind. In almost 
every instance where the sitting member was ousted out of his 
seat, his competitor came in "without return, credential, or com- 
mission." (Remember, sir, I am not responsible for the tauto- 
logy of this sentence.) How could they come in under any of 
these things ? They had been cheated out of them by the fraud 
or stupidity of the Governor and Privy Council of New Jersey. 
The people of that State had done all in their power to secure 
to themselves the inestimable right of suffrage. They had 
gone to the election on the day, and at the places specified by 
law, and deposited their votes in the ballot boxes. This was 
all they could do. At the close of that election, whoever re- 
ceived the highest number of votes, were the only true and 
lawful members of Congress. It is so expressly declared by 
the laws of New Jersey, and must be so from the very nature 
and spirit of our institutions. The people having voted and 
made choice of their own Representatives, all that remained 
to be done was, to commission those on whom that choice had 
fallen. The records or returns, when full, clearly showed that 
choice to have fallen on Messrs. Dickerson, Vroom, and Co 

13 



178 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES. 

They carried these records, laid them down in the presence of 
the Governor, and demanded their commissions. What was 
his answer ? " Go and get them from the House of Represen- 
tatives." This House has granted them. Your resolution of 
admission is their commission ; a prouder credential than was 
ever issued under the sign manual of Governor Pennington. 

But we are told that this foul deed was done to secure a ma- 
jority, to carry through certain favorite measures of the Ad- 
ministration. I solemnly declare, Mr. Speaker, that I never 
heard such an idea advanced any where, or by any person, 
until I saw it in the address of the minority. What are these 
measures : the Sub-Treasury ? The Treasury Note bill ? 
The resolutions refusing the assumption of State debts ? 
Sir, I know not, I care not, to what measures the minority 
may allude, the assertion must fail from its own absurdity. 
It is incredible that the Administration should be able to 
perpetrate all the outrages charged upon it in the New Jersey 
case, and that too by so large a majority, and yet be un- 
able to carry through its own favorite measures of public 
policy. Sir, the credulity of this country is taxed even to 
bankruptcy, when called on to believe such monstrous 
allegations. 

I mean next to notice a very extraordinary observation to be 
found in the appeal of the minority. They remark that this 
House, with a madness and blindness belonging to desperation 
only, not only adopted the report, but even went one step 
further and admitted these five claimants to their seats. What 
beautiful and respectful language toward this House — a House 
of which they are members, and with which their own reputation 
and character are so intimately connected. The minority pro- 
ceed with the bold assertion that all this was done, " the House 
being wholly ignorant of what the evidence established." Igno- 
rant of what the evidence established ! What was that report 
intended to show ? Simply the fact who received the greatest 
number of votes at the New Jersey election. The instructions 
of the House went no further than that. The report, on its 
face, purported to go no further. Now the question is, whether 
the House was ignorant of the evidence bearing on that point. 
It stands recorded on your journals, that it was all read, on 



ON THE NEW JERSET CONTESTED ELECTION. 179 

the call of the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Duncan] plainly 
and distinctly read ; and if your records were silent on it, there 
are now here within this Capitol more than two hundred wit- 
nesses to attest the fact. 

Sir, this charge of ignorance has not even the merit of 
novelty to recommend it to public favor. We have long since 
yielded the claim of " all the talents and all the decency" to 
those who have so modestly claimed it. I mean, sir, that we 
had yielded to that modest assumption before the present ses- 
sion of Congress. Since the occurence of this New Jersey 
case, howeve ,1 believe they have, by common consent, discon- 
tinued any further claim to a monoply of all the decency, at 
least. 

Mr. Speaker, I have been surprised at the remedy proposed 
by the minority for all these alleged outrages committed by 
this House in the New Jersey case. They call on the people 
to " rise in their majesty, and assert and vindicate their rights 
at the ballot boxes. 1 ' At the ballot boxes ! What, sir, have 
we been doing but that, throughout this whole controversy? 
What the people can do there, let them learn from the conduct 
of Gov. Pennington and his Privy Council at the ballot boxes ! 
I did not expect that the gentleman had the heart to utter such 
a word. What avail the ballot boxes, in an age and country 
where it is boldly maintained that a partisan Governor can set 
them aside at his pleasure, substitute his own friends in their 
stead, and, by affixing the broad seal to the nefarious deed, de- 
fend and protect it from all correction? If these things can be 
done, and then justified here, I again ask, of what avail are 
the ballot boxes against party misrule and Federal domina- 
tion ? The ballot boxes may speak in the voice of thunder, 
and yet a Whig Governor can speak louder than they. New 
Jersey knows the truth of what I declare, because New Jersey 
has felt it. The majority of the committee, and of this House, 
have sustained throughout this controversy, the rights and 
liberties of the people of that noble and gallant State ; the 
minority have, throughout, justified the usurpations of its 
Governor and Privy Council. We have succeeded in putting 
into their seats those who have been in truth and in fact 
chosen by the people. They have been prevented from in- 



180 CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES, 

troducing, as members, on this floor, those who were rejected 
by the people, and whose only recommendation was, " that 
thev had found favor in the eyes" of Governor Pennington. 
Baffled in the committee room, defeated in their views on this 
floor, the minority have appealed to the American people. 
They appeal as an oppressed and much injured minority, 
whose counter report has been rejected and suppressed by 
those who should have acted on it. This faint and sickly cry 
of persecution and oppression is to be another one of those 
false issues which have been raised, in order to divert the pub- 
lic mind from the real merits of this controversy. The minor- 
ity have not made a fair statement on the subject. They 
have neither stated all facts, nor stated them in a proper order 
and connection. How were the facts in the committee-room ? 
The minority asked that the presentation of our report should 
be suspended until theirs should be prepared, and both be sub- 
mitted together. Two periods were mentioned by them. The 
vote was taken on the longest time first. The majority did 
vote against the longest, intending to vote for the shortest 
time. But, sir, to our surprise, the proposition as to the short- 
est time was withdrawn by one of the minority, and now the 
complaint, is, that we would give no right at all. Gentlemen 
seem to have gone on the idea that every thing must be done 
in their own way, or not done at all. This was strikingly 
illustrated on this floor on the presentation of their report. 
When they came in with it, the House was actually engaged 
in discussing and considering the report of the majority. Now, 
what was the very reasonable and modest request of these 
gentlemen ? It was that the House should lay down the busi- 
ness then on hand — put aside the further consideration of the 
report of the majority, and take up that of the minority. 
The question was asked of the Speaker, whether, if this was 
done, the report of the minority, in the event of a debate on 
it, would not take precedence of all debate and action on 
that of the majority. The Speaker decided that it would. 
Thereupon the House determined to proceed in regular order ; 
to debate and decide on the report first presented, and when 
that was done to take up that of the minority. Sir, was there 



ON THE NEW JERSEY CONTESTED ELECTION. 181 

any oppression in all this ? What right had these gentlemen 
to come bustling into the House, and to demand that every 
thing should stand aside for them, and that their report should 
have a preference over that of the majority? At the first mo- 
ment after the report of the majority was disposed of, the 
gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. Dro.mgoole,] rose in his place, 
and expressed a hope that the House would now, by universal 
consent, agree to receive the report of the minority, and that 
both reports and testimony be printed. Sir, from what quarte; 
did opposition come, to this proposal ? Not from us, but froir- 
two of their own friends. One of them expressly declared, 
that he did not want it received ; " that he wanted it to go forth 
to the world a suppressed report." The minority seized on 
the suggestion, ceased to ask for its reception, and have sent 
it forth in blazing capitals as a suppressed report. 

Mr. Speaker : in the appeal to the American people, which 
the minority have been pleased to take, we most heartily unite- 
We are perfectly willing to meet them at the bar of an en- 
lightened and impartial public opinion. But we want that 
appeal to he fairly presented, with no errors of fact to mis- 
lead, and no false clamor of injustice and oppression to ex- 
cite public sympathy. We mean to stand at that bar as the 
advocates for the supremacy of the popular will ; they must 
be there as the defenders of the conduct of those who have 
violated and outraged that supremacy. We will be there, 
relying on the broad merits, on the truth and justice of our 
cause, they standing on nothing but technical presumptions, 
at open war with the facts, and on the supposed magic of the 
broad seal, desecrated as it was in this bold attempt to destroy 
the rights and liberties of the people of New Jersey. The 
minority, in sending forth their appeal, invoke a decision in 
their favor, in order to save this Government from becoming 
" worse than a Turkish despotism !" We assert that the 
danger lies altogether in a different direction. W^e maintain 
that whenever the time shall arrive when returning officers be- 
gin to substitute their icills for that of the people — when your 
State Governors assume to make Representatives in Congress, 
in face of the very records of our elections, then indeed " a 
worse than Turkish despotism" will have fallen on this country. 



PART II. 



POLITICAL SPEECHES AND OTHER ADDRESSES. 



SPEECH. 

Extracts from the Speech of Aaron V. Brown, the Democratic 
candidate for the office of Governor, delivered at Alliens, East 
Tennessee, June 21st, 1845. 



Mr. Brown commenced by adverting to the high and respon- 
sible office for which he had become a candidate. One so high 
and so responsible, that he never should have aspired to it, but 
for the unsought and undesired designation of the late Demo- 
cratic Convention. Most earnestly had he desired the nomin- 
ation of some other individual, more able to vindicate and 
sustain the great principles of that party with which he had 
been acting for more than twenty years. Not that he was in- 
sensible to the honor of presiding over the destiny of such a 
noble and gallant State as Tennessee. To contribute any- 
thing valuable to the prosperity of her brave and hardy people? 
might well kindle up the pride and ambition of any man liv- 
ing. But he desired no elevation, not even the highest which 
the people of the State could confer, if it had to be obtained 
by either the concealment or the abandonment of his princi- 
ples. He was here to-day to make known these principles to 
his fellow-citizens now assembled, and he invoked their patient 
and kind attention. He did not propose to say any thing 
about the removal of the deposites, the specie circular, or the 
different vetoes of a United States Bank. All these were 
now dead and buried questions. So also is the chartering of 
another United States Bank. Mr. Foster will presently tell 
you that the democratic party will have a large majority (forty 
or fifty at the least) in the next Congress opposed to every such 



186 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES, 

institution. Well, this covers the whole period of the two 
years during which we are proposing to serve you. Why then 
should ice have one word to say on the subject? I know well 
and must therefore anticipate his answer. He will say to you 
that the Bank is not dead, but like Lazarus, only sleepeth. It 
may be so, but it seems to me (said Mr. B.) that if it be asleep, 
it is the very soundest sleep I ever saw. Day after day and 
week after week, have I seen Mr. Foster apply his galvanic 
battery to it, without the least effect upon it. No flutter of 
pulse, no heaving of the breast, no flush of the face, no open- 
ing of an eyelid inspires the hope of returning animation. 
But notwithstanding all these unfavorable circumstances, Mr. 
Foster still persists in cherishing some faint hope of its future 
resuscitation. Truth, he says, never dies ; and throwing 
himself into a lofty and I suppose poetic attitude, exclaims, 

" Truth crush'd to earth by power riven, 
Will rise again and fly to Heaven !" 

Well, if by truth he means the Bank, (and he is talking about 
nothing else,) I must be permitted to say that he has at last 
located his Bank in a very singular place. "Will rise again 
and fly to Heaven!" Why it sounds to me a little like profan- 
ity. Besides, I should very much fear that many of your 
friends might find it very difficult to obtain discounts in it 
there. What will you do for a President to attend to the bu- 
siness, for it is very well understood that the old President 
(Biddle) has gone in another direction. 

But, gentlemen, why should Mr. Foster desire to keep up 
this everlasting and useless argument about a Bank? He, it 
seems to me, ought to be the last man in the State who should 
wish to do so. He was here with you in 1840 — propliesying 
then as he is poetizing now, about a Bank. His first prophecy 
then, was, that our local Banks could never resume specie pay- 
ments without a national Bank to lead the way. Well, what 
has become of that ? Gone the way of all false prophecies 
before it. What was his second prophecy ? Why, that our 
exchanges could never be reduced and regulated without a 
Bank. What has become of that? Gone likewise the way 
of all the Earth. What was his third prophecy about the 
Bank? That our circulating medium could never become 



SPEECH AT ATHENS. 187 

sound and uniform without such an institution. Well, what 
has become of that ? He himself now admits, that the precious 
metals have flowed into the country, until we now have about 
three times as much gold and silver in the United States as we 
have of paper money. Well, we all know gold and silver to 
be sound, and we never heard of any thing more uniform all 
the world over. Thus it is that the third prophecy has been 
falsified by time and actual experience and must be sent off 
to travel "in the footsteps of its two illustrious predecessors." 
I am glad to have an opportunity to advert to these things. I 
have shown you the prophecies and the prophet of 1840. I 
brought him here with me that you might see him in 1845. 
Here he stands, look at him — "guilty or not guilty?" But 
why ask him that question, when we know from the good book 
that there never were but two kinds of prophets. The prophets 
of the Lord and Baal's prophets. The former all died up with 
the dispensation in which they were employed, but the false 
prophets of Baal seem determined to live forever! (pointing 
to Mr. F.) 

But, said Mr. B., I must pass away from this subject. Let 
Mr. Foster come forward and tell you, as he will, that Gen. 
Washington signed the first and Mr. Madison the second char- 
ter. So did Gen. Washington sign the commission of Bene- 
dict Arnold, but when he found by experience that he was a 
bad man, and would have betrayed him and ruined his coun- 
try, would he have signed him a second commission ? So of 
Mr. Madison after Hull had surrendered one of the finest ar- 
mies of the last war. Sirs, they both acted in reference to the 
future, which no human foresight can penetrate, 

" Shadows, clouds and darkness rest upon it." 

But you, in deciding on a Bank, can now look back on the past, 
with all the clear sun-light of experience shinning upon it, and 
warning you, as you love yourselves, your families, your liber- 
ties and your country, to make no more Banks and no more 
paper money than you are obliged to have. It is an artificial 
and speculating system, which robs the laboring man of much 
of the hard earnings of his toil and his labor. Taking it in 
connection with the tariff, on which I shall presently speak, it 



1S8 



CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 



is no stretch of the imagination to say, the farmer plants one 
grain of corn for himself, one for the banks, and one for the 
tariff. The blacksmith, with his lusty strength, strikes one 
blow for himself, one for the banks, and one for the tariff. 
So of the cotton planter, the tobacco grower, and the stock 
raiser, and in fact, so of all the agricultural and mechanical 
employments of our country. 

I pass now to the distribution of the proceeds of the sales 
and entry of the public lands. I do not know whether to say 
much on this topic. Mr. Foster has evidently neglected it of 
late. Has he discovered that, according to his own admission, 
the democrats would have a large majority in the next Con- 
gress, and therefore it is useless to debate it any further ? If 
so, I commend his discretion and forbearance. Or does he 
begin to discover that the shrewdness and good sense of the 
people look too easily through the sophistry that sustains the 
whole project. I will only ask him (to save you the trouble) a 
few questions for his answer and solution. At any time when 
you have not too much money in the treasury, if you take out 
two millions of the land money, will you not leave a vacuum 
of two millions ! When this vacuum comes to be filled up, 
must it not be done by taxing the people through the tariff, the 
same amount of two millions? Well, how can it benefit any 
people to give them two millions and then make them pay it 
right back ? Try it by individuals ; how can it help a man to 
give him five dollars to-day and then make him pay it back to- 
morrow ? But the case is much worse than that. For the two 
millions taken out of the treasury, you must pay back two 
millions and a quarter or half, to cover all the commissions, ex- 
penses and loss of the distribution and collection. Well, you 
give a man five dollars of distribution money and then demand 
six or seven dollars in return ! Sir, such a process can neither 
help a nation nor the individuals of it. It can neither advance 
the cause of education nor internal improvement. No, it is 
but a delusive bribe held out to tempt the virtue of a confiding 
people into the support of a wild and desperate ambition. But 
there is another reason why distribution cannot take place 
whilst the present tariff continues in force — you cannot have 
this tariff and distribution both. You covenanted in the Sen- 



SPEECH AT ATHENS. 



189 



a te — you covenanted in the House by your amendment to the 
distribution law, that if ever the tariff was raised above the 
rates of the compromise, distribution should cease. You did 
raise the tariff above the compromise — you know you did — you 
admit you did. Well, how can you now ask for distribution ? 
You solemnly covenanted that you would not— your party 
signed the deed in both Houses — Heaven and earth were the 
witnesses ! Shall posterity have to weep over the violated 
faith, the plighted honor of your party. O, I trust not. I ap- 
peal to the sturdy, honest old whigs that are here to-day- 
whig* whose word is their bond, to rise up and command Mr. 
Foster to stop and not perpetrate a deed of such foul dishonor. 
It will be foul indeed. Its rankness will smell to Heaven for 
ages to come, if this horrible thing shall be done. What is a 
great party worth — what can it be worth in any country when 
it cannot be restrained by its most solemn and imposing cove- 
nants? Made with no foreign enemy — made with no rival 
party — but made with themselves ! 

Next in the order of our usual discussion, said Mr. Brown, 
I invite you to the subject of the Tariff. The democratic party 
insists that it is too high in its rates, unjust in its discrimina- 
tions and ought to be greatly reduced and re-adjusted. The 
whig party are opposed to its reduction and alteration, and 
Mr. Foster, as its organ standard bearer, in Tennessee, is pe- 
culiarly zealous and determined in its support. He tells you 
to stand by it to the last, for it is the rock of your political sal- 
vation—the goose that lays for you the golden eggs. The 
rock of this people's salvation— rather say the rock on which 
you are to split in this election. The slippery rock on which 
you stand, whilst the fiery billows of public indignation are 
rolling below you. You may hear those billows every day 
murmuring in the distance, indicating, with unerring certain- 
ty, the return of the people to the ancient revenue creed of 
Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Hugh Lawson White. 
" The goose that lays the golden egg /" I would not presume 
to say he were a goose to say so ; far be such discourtesy from 
me, but I feel greatly tempted to say he must be a goose who 
can believe it. " The goose that lays the golden eggs !" No, 
they are the eggs of the Cockatrice, hatching a brood of ser- 



100 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

pents that will sting this people to death. " Hold on to the 
tariff." Sirs, in the better days of that gentleman such was 
not his counsel. In the better days of the party which he now 
represents, such was not its counsel. He and they would have 
scorned such eulogies at any time prior to 1843-4, when it be- 
came evident that Mr. Clay was to be their candidate for the 
Presidency. I know that Mr. Foster's friends who nominated 
him, addressing the public in his behalf, have denied this 
change of opinion — declared that it was a slander, and defied 
their opponents to the proof. I take up that glove of defiance, 
and here offer the proof to an impartial world. Who are the 
present whig party in Tennessee? It was the White party of 
1836. The Harrison party of 1840, and the Clay party of 
1S44. Well, what were the opinions of the White party, of 
1S36, in relation to the Tariff? 

1st. I rely on the fact, that Judge Wliite, the head and 
founder of the party, lived and died an enemy, unflinching and 
unwavering, to a protective tariff. This is proved by many of 
his speeches and other writings. 

2nd. That Mr. Bell, the most conspicuous member of that 
party at the formation, was opposed to it ; and I now, here, 
have present the best speech he ever made in Congress — de- 
livered in 1832. 

3rd. I rely on the speech of Mr. Bailey Peyton, another 
very conspicuous member of the party ; also present for inspec- 
tion, delivered in 1824. 

4th. I rely on the resolutions of the Legislature of 1835, 
and the journals are now present. 

5th. I rely on the whig address of 183G, after they voted for 
Judge White, in which they expressly declare " that he was 
opposed to a tariff for protection." 

6th. I rely on the whig address of the Legislature of 1842, 
in which they clearly indicate their devotion to the doctrine of 
free trade. It is here present for inspection. 

7th. I rely on the fact, that every whig member of Ten- 
nessee (except one) voted against the Tariff of 1842 — now 
sought to be reduced. 

8th. I rely on the address of my competitor, of 1839, to the 
Legislature to which he was then resigning his seat in the Sen- 



SPEECH AT ATHENS, 191 

ate here present for his inspection. But I know he does not 
desire to inspect it. It is ever present before his eyes, and 
like Lady Macbeth, he might well exclaim " out ! out, thou 
damned spot." 

Let us now examine this celebrated document of Mr. Foster. 
I do not read it to convict him of change. Oh ! no, for he has 
long since confessed the fact. " I have changed," said he at 
Purdy, " and glory in it. I have changed my views of Gen- 
eral Jackson's policy." But why did not your committee say 
so too ? How dare they to write, print and circulate that it 
was false to alledge that they had changed ! I read it, there- 
fore, not as against Mr. Ephraim H. Foster — but against him 
as "the great embodiment" of the whig party in Tennessee. 
The great embodiment, of whom it is slander to say he has 
changed ! Mr. Foster says in that address, " the general gov- 
ernment, as I have elsewhere observed, collects its immense 
revenue by what politicians call a indirect tax ; and the mys- 
teries of a system which steals in silent impunity from our un- 
conscious purses, may easily deceive a well informed com- 
munity," &c. Now look at the contrast right here ! He calls 
it a stealing system in 1839, and now in 1845 he calls on you 
" to hold on to it." What, hold on to stealing ! On another 
page he said, "this mysterious system steals from you more 
than a million of dollars per annum." Now, in 1845, when it 
must be double that sum, he says : " It is the rock of your 
salvation." What ! can it be the salvation of the people to 
pay two million of taxes instead of one ! On another page 
he used the following language, "yearly, then, do we pay into 
the Treasury at Washington this enormous sum of money ; and 
though few perhaps know the fact, or stop to calculate the 
cost, it is a constant drain on our resources, and abstracts, from 
our sweat and our toil, by increasing the price of our salt and 
our iron, our sugar and our spices and almost every arti- 
cle we use or consume. 

Now, mark you, these were the sentiments of Mr. Foster in 
1839 and in 1840, when he first appeared as a teacher amongst 
you. Then he taught you that a high tariff was a drain on 
your resources, just as Jackson, White, Bell and Peyton had 
taught you before. Then he told you that a high tariff made you 



192 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

pay too much for your iron, salt and sugar and almost every 
article we use or consume. Now he comes to tell us high 
taxes make low goods, and that the more money the general 
government steals from us the more we have left to live upon 
and educate our children. His present doctrine is, 

" A little thieving is a dangerous art, 
But thieving largely is a noble part ; 
'Tis vile to rob a hen-roost of a hen, 
But stealing largely makes us gentlemen." 

Mr. Foster further adds on same page, " who is he that 
reflects and does not see the oppressive inequality of such a 
state of things. When pay-day comes we are told in frater- 
nal accents, we are one household, but when the bounties of 
the family chest are to be distributed the Lion's share falls to 
an elder Brother, the crumbs and the bones are ours." This, 
was in 1839 and 1840, when he first came among you; now in 
1845, he comes to tell you that crumhs and bones are good 
enough for you, and that your elder Brother (New England) is 
entitled to the Lion's share ! I know what my competitor will 
reply to all this. He will declare, as at Purdy and other 
places, " whereas I was blind, lo ! now I see." Aye, my 
competitor blind ! — blind when he was more than forty-five 
years of age — blind when a Senator in the American Con- 
gress. Well, what assurance have we that he is not blind 
now ; and the good book assures us that when " the blind lead 
the blind, botji are like to fall into the ditch." Sirs, let me 
tell my competitor that he has not yet to fall into the ditch — 
he has been there already, and had better try and scramble 
out as fast as he can and wash off all the dirt and Clay stick- 
ing about him. But let me say, I have no humor iov humor on 
such a subject as this. I want to call your attention to the 
articles of necessity mention by Mr. Foster. The first one 
salt. What did the whig tariff tax it? — 72 per cent. What 
did the domocrats try to reduce it to? — 20 per cent., being a 
reduction of 52 per cent. Would Mr. Foster help us to do it ? 
He would not. Would he now help us ? He will tell you he 
would not. What is the next article? Iron. The demo- 
crats tried to reduce that which the whigs had previously laid 



SPEECH AT ATHENS. 193 

very high — some 4 per cent. — some 16 — some 46-some 19, &c, 
according- to qualities and descriptions. Would Mr. Foster or 
his party assist us ? No, neither he nor they would do so. 
His next article is sugar. The whigs taxed that 66 per cent. — 
we tried to reduce that 14 per cent., and Mr. Foster and his 
party would not assist us even in doing that much. Mr. Fos- 
ter merely adds " almost every article we use or consume" — 
none of which, now recollected, would he then or now consent 
to reduce ! And yet we are told the whig party now stand 
where they have always stood ! I know well what Mr. Foster 
will say to this also. He will say General Jackson changed 
from the time he wrote his Coleman letter. I do not think my 
competitor (said Mr. Brown) ever understood that letter ; but 
granting, for argument sake, that General Jackson did undergo 
some change from 1824 to 1832, did he not change with him 
and stand by him on the same platform with Judge White, 
Mr. Bell, and all the rest of the Whig party ? I have proven 
that he did; and so it follows if General Jackson changed 
once, (which I do not admit) Mr. Foster and his party have 
changed twice to his once. Will he put up with this poor con- 
solation? He may say others have changed. We are not 
talking about others — I have nothing to do with others in this 
contest ; I have only to do with the embodiment of the whig 
party in Tennessee ; and if he and they have changed, my 
proof is full and this issue is settled. I care not what he says 
about Martin Luther, the Pope of Rome granting absolution 
to the Irishman for a stack of hay which he intended to 
steal but had not yet stolen. I care nothing for all such things, 
I hold this contested issue to be settled by the proofs, and that 
neither the whig party nor their standard bearer can sustain 
that claim to consistency in politics which they have challeng- 
ed the democracy to refute. 

Mr. Foster talks much about the home market. Mr. Bell 
long since overturned all he says on that subject. Does 
he not see likewise that in trying to build up a home 
market in the north, by a high tariff which cripples the south 
and forces them to raise their own provisions, that he strikes 
down and destroys a home market five times as good to us as 

the northern one can be ? He talks of shutting up the fac- 
14 



19 i CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

tories and closing the doors of the workshops of our mechanics. 
Who proposes to do this ? No democrat in America. All we 
ask is to lower the tariff so as to equalize the burdens of all 
classes — lessening, it is true, to some extent, the profits of the 
manufacturer, not the ordinary mechanic, but increasing those 
of the farmer, planter, and the stock-raiser. 

Mr. Brown said he had hurried over these different subjects, 
in order that he might have something to say on the two great 
questions of Texas and Oregon. Day after day were wasted 
by his competitor in the discussion of subjects whose impor- 
tance compared to these did not weigh as the dust in the 
balance. They were attracting the attention of all the coun- 
tries of Europe. The kings of the earth were in daily consul- 
tation with all their high Minister of State in relation to them. 
The news from this young republic filled them with astonish- 
ment and terror. Her light was beginning to shine too 
brightly, her power was increasing too rapidly, and the moral 
influence of her march to prosperity and greatness was begin- 
ning to spread among the immense masses of the old World, 
until every sceptre is weakening and every throne tottering 
under it. At first we started with only thirteen States, and 
although every few years they saw some solitary additions to 
the number, yet they still looked upon us with unconcern and 
indifference. During the= last winter, however, they saw two 
States admitted at once, Iowa and Florida, making twenty- 
eight States of this glorious confederacy. They saw at the 
same time the admission of Texas, covering the whole of the 
important coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Instantly they took 
the alarm, and have resorted, and are yet resorting, to all the 
schemes and devices in their power to prevent its annexation. 
Is it not strange, my fellow-citizens, said Mr. B., that any por- 
tion of our countrymen should sympathize and unite with 
foreign nations in wishing to check the growth and to arrest 
our onward march to greatness and prosperity ? There was 
a time when it was not so. There was a time when we were 
all united like a band of brothers in favor of acquiring that 
fine and noble country. Tennessee led off in the great work. 
Her heroic sons had moistened the soil of Texas with their 
blood, and the bones of many of them lay bleaching on her 



SPEECH AT ATHENS, 195 

battle fields. In 1838 her Legislature, with no division of 
opinion, instructed her Senators to do all in their power in or- 
der to procure her admission. In 1842, with equal unanimity 
through the same organ, she made known her wish for the suc- 
cessful accomplishment of the great object. In the mean 
time, her greatest and wisest citizen — he who having filled 
the measure of his country's glory, now rest with all the just 
made perfect in heaven, was directing his best efforts to rouse 
up President Tyler to make the attempt by negotiation and 
treaty. His efforts were successful — John Tyler, with the 
sanction of his great name, was encouraged to make the at- 
tempt. The treaty was made. It was submitted to the Sen- 
ate of the United States. To a Senate that hated John 
Tyler — to a Senate that hated Andrew Jackson — to a Senate 
that hated John C. Calhoun — to a Senate that loved party 
more than country. It was rejected. Let me read what my 
competitor said were his reasons for rejecting it. 

" I object," said he, " to the time and manner of getting up 
this treaty, and to the selfish and ambitious motives which I 
faithfully believe actuated the President in bringing forward 
and pursuing this negotiation." What, object to the time ! 
When should it rather be done, than when it can be done ? 
Beside, those who instructed you, determined the time. They 
said the right time had come note- — as soon as possible. What 
right had you to overrule their determination ? But you ob- 
ject to the selfish and ambitious motives of John Tyler in 
bringing it forward. What had his motives to do with your obedi- 
ence to instructions? The deed was good — you admitted that 
it was good, and yet you refused to confirm it because John 
Tyler had done it* Had Lucifer done it — you should have 
confirmed it. The treaty was rejected in the spring. The 
Presidential canvass was opened in the summer. My com- 
petitor and all his friends threw themselves into the canvass 
and appeal to you to sustain Mr. Foster in his vote. What 
did they tell you ? Do not annex Texas — if youdo, you will 
bring a stain of everlasting dishonor on your country. Do 
not annex Texas — if you do you will involve your country in a 
war so unjust, that Heaven itself will frown upon you and take 
sides with Mexico. Do not annex Texas — if you do, you 



196 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

will dissolve forever this bright and glorious Union ! By such 
fervid, but as it now seems unfounded appeals, many a good 
man, I might say thousands of them turned, away from Texas. 
Tore from their bosoms all the natural sympathies of their 
hearts, and resolved to leave a brave and gallant people to their 
bloody fate. The kings of the earth were in conspiracy against 
them. The tyrant of Mexico was mustering his army, and 
had sent out his orders in advance to kill and murder every 
living creature found in the country. The mother fleeing 
with her infant in her arms, was to be shot down, and tottering 
old a°"e, unable to flee, was to receive the same savage fate. 
Little did our people think that they were called upon to do 
all this only to aid in the election of Henry Clay to the Presi- 
dency. But it was even so. My competitor now often states 
that when he first saw this Texas question it appeared like a 
dark cloud on the horizon, and that he told his friends to have 
nothing to do with it until they saw who was to be President. 
Treasure these words up in your memory, carry them home 
with you to your neighbors. They shed a flood of light on 
this whole subject — "have nothing to do with it until you see 
who is to be President." Well, the election was over. The 
fla 0- of Texas waived in triumph over the nation — but, alas, it 
could have no triumph in Tennessee ! By a majority of 113 
it was made to trail in the dust. The flag of San Jacinto — the 
flag under which Houston fought and under which Crocket 
fell ! The flag, I repeat, was made to trail in the dust ; but, 
thank God, only by 113 ; and even these were obtained by pre- 
tended and cunning and heartless devices. 

Do you ask me for proof that it was accomplished by such 
devices ? My competitor himself has said so. He said so, by 
offering resolutions of annexation himself, so soon as Congress 
met. What a reflection was that on Mr. Bell, on Gov. Jones, 
on Mr. Henry, on Mr. Neil S. Brown, and Gen. Heiskell — on 
his own brother Senator setting every day by his side, uncon- 
sulted as I understand on this great movement — right in the 
face of all that these gentlemen had said to the people ! What 
was it but saying that these gentlemen did not deal honestly 
with the people, or that they knew nothing of what would be 
national honor— what would be displeasing to Heaven— what 



SPEECH AT ATHENS. 19? 

would have a tendency to dissolve the Union. What a thrust, 
too, at the whig press of Tennessee, which had fully sustained 
all these gentlemen in their arguments before the people. 
Gov. Jones' organ, at Lebanon, accordingly rebuked Mr. Fos- 
ter severely for the movement — Mr. Bell's organ, at Nashville, 
rebuked him — Mr. Henry's organ, at Clarksville, rebuked him — 
Gen. Heiskell's, at Jackson, rebuked him, whilst the whole 
whig press of East Tennessee did the same thing. It was 
to this incident that the Enquirer, a whig paper at Memphis, 
must have alluded when speaking of Mr. Foster's nomination 
by his party : 

" It is, therefore, of no small moment, that our candidate should come in- 
to the field as free as possible from those incumbrances which existing pre- 
judices will not fail to throw into his way. He should, as far as may be, have 
no ancient political sins to answer for— no offences against popular notions 
to explain away — no alleged inconsistences to reconcile, &c. * * The first 
impulse, therefore, as we have just said, was with scarcely a dissenting 
voice, in favor of his [Mr. Foster's] nomination. For some weeks past, 
however, a sober second thought has been working its way in the minds of 
many of our most sagacious and reflecting friends ; and at the present time 
we believe we represent truly the ripened judgment of the Whigs in this 
region, when we say that it points as decisively to the selection of a younger, 
though not less gallant soldier in our ranks, as under all the circumstances 
by which we are surrounded, and in view of recent developments the most judi- 
cious selection of a leader that could be made." 

Such was the tone of the Whig press, and such the condi- 
tion of the great leaders of that party in Tennessee, as mani- 
fested after Mr. Foster and Mr. Milton Brown offered their 
resolutions of Annexation. It was a matter of the highest 
moment to them to wait and see what that tone and that con- 
dition would be when the news of their introduction should be 
received in Tennessee. They did wait. They were over- 
whelmed by the returning and regurgitating tide. For the first 
time in his life, Mr. Foster saw that the whig party of Ten- 
nessee would not go with him. He now saw that they would 
go with Mr. Bell and Gov. Jones and the other leaders, rather 
than with him. Mr. Milton Brown saw that his great rival, 
General Heiskell, could hold them back in spite of his teeth, 
and that he and Mr. Foster had no alternative left but to re- 
treat. Retreat ! retreat ! was sounding in their ears. They 



198 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

did retreat, and they who started so gallantly with the Demo- 
crats in achieving the noble work, first hesitated, then faltered 
and finally turned back and recorded their votes against her. 
Mr. Brown recorded his against Walker's amendment, and 
Mr. Foster his against both the amendment and his own origi- 
nal resolution. It was a sublime moment when that vote was 
recorded in the Senate. It was recorded at night, but when 
an hundred lights illuminated the Hall. The learning and the 
beauty of the land were there, crowded almost to suffocation, 
but yet so still and breathless in their attention that the fall of 
a pin might have started you by its echo. In the stillness and 
grandeur of such a scence I saw Texas standing at the door 
of the Senate Chamber, asking for admittance. There she 
stood leaning on her sword, with her garments dyed in the 
blood of freedom. There she stood, pleading that she might 
be permitted to lay down her sword by the side of Washing- 
ton's and deposit her glorious banner of San Jacinto beside 
those under which your fathers won the battles of Brandy wine, 
and Princton, and Yorktown, and all the glorious battles of the 
Revolution. But what did I behold ? My own Senator, (Mr. 
Foster) who had himself invited her there, rushed forward, 
rudely slammed the door in her face, crying, begone ! begone ! 
Your sword is a trator's sword, and the blood on your gar- 
ments is the blood of rebels ! 

O, why was not the ungracious deed left to be performed by 
other hands ? If Mr. Foster, after inviting her there, had 
only stepped forward and gracefully handed her to a seat 
around our National altar, he would have filled Tennessee 
with gratitude and America with joy. But the golden moment 
was lost, and he who might have been the " observed of all 
observers," is now compelled to fix up this excuse and patch 
up that apology for a course so extraordinary and unexpected. 
He will presently tell you that he was sincerely in favor of 
Annexation, and cite you to the speeches which he made both 
on the Treaty and on his resolution. I know he spoke for 
Texas — spoke handsomely for her. But nobody wanted 
speeches — speeches were plenty as black-berries for Texas. 
We wanted votes for her, and these we could never screw out of 
Mr. Foster no way we could manage it. Speaking for Texas, 



SPEECH AT ATHENS. 199 

the voice was Jacob's voice ; voting against her, the hands 
were the hands, of Esau. 

He will further tell you that he was driven from the support 
of his own or Milton Brown's resolution, by the amendment 
of Mr. Walker in the Senate. What was there in the words 
of Mr. Walker's amendment thus to frighten him from his 
purpose? The words were precisely those used by the Ten- 
nessee Legislature — by Burchett Douglass, Jno. B. Ashe, H. 
M. Burton, and all your friends in that body. If you con- 
demn the words of that amendment, you condemn your own 
friends, and if you save yourself by this excuse, you ruin and 
destroy them forever. They told you to admit Texas into the 
Union " on an equal footing with the sovereign States." The 
amendment did admit her " on an equal footing with the ex- 
isting States." The one seems to have been copied from the 
other. But Mr. Foster will tell you that this amendment con- 
tained a concession to the Abolitionists of the North, which he 
would have died sooner than make. A concession to the Ab- 
olitionists ! A sacrifice of the institutions of the South to the 
foul demon of fanaticism ! Why, how is this ? She was to 
come in " on an equal footing with the existing States." What 
are the rights of the existing States in relation to holding 
slaves ? To have them or not to have them, just as the peo- 
ple may choose. Why do they not have slavery in New York? 
Only because the people of that State do not choose to have 
it. Why have we slaves in Tennessee ? Only because we 
choose to have them. So it was to be with Texas, precisely. 
So far from being frightened off by the amendment, he should 
have seized on it with avidity, so far as the slave question was 
concerned, for that extended slavery, if the people of Texas 
wanted it, all over Texas, whereas Mr. Foster's resolution con- 
fined it to South of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, the Mis- 
souri Compromise line. To sum up the whole on this point, 
Mr. Foster called for a guarantee. The amendment gave it in 
express words, as plain as the English language could make 
it. It gave a broader and better guarantee than Mr. Foster 
had given to himself. It was but a delusion of the brain that 
induced him to think or to imagine that he thought he could see 
an Abolitionist in Walker's amendment. Henderson nor John- 



200 



CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 



son, nor Merrick could see it. Crittenden looked, and told Mr. 
Foster that there was nothing in it. Mr. Senator Choate, of 
Massachusetts, himself an Abolitionist, was called upon to ex- 
amine it carefully, lie did so examine it, and shaking his head 
at Mr. Foster said, " there is no Abolitionist there, Mr. Fos- 
ter. I wish there was, I would then vote for it. But I see 
slavery there — all over Texas — worse than in your own resolu- 
tions." So Mr. Choate votes against the amendment because 
he sees a great big negro in it, whilst Mr. Foster votes against 
it because he sees a red hot Abolitionist in it. What wonder- 
ful discrepancy between these two great Whig Senators ! Mr. 
Choate might well cry out to Mr. Foster 

" He must have optics keen, I ween, 
Who sees what is not to be seen." 

Mr. Foster may again, to-day, give you his old argument 
that he wanted Texas, but that he loved the Union and the 
Constitution better than Texas. It is the old argument of 
last summer. Then we were told the same things. We were 
even told that the convention had been actually called for its 
dissolution to be held at Nashville, and that Andrew Jackson 
was to preside over it. Well, time drove the false and infamous 
prophecy back on all the prophets of Baal who had uttered it; 
no convention of the sort was called ; Andrew Jackson now 
sleeps in the tomb, and the last throb of his soul was for the 
Union and for his country. Texas, too, has been annexed, and 
now who sees any marks of the displeasure of Heaven on ac- 
count of it. The earth puts forth its verdure, the clouds send 
down their showers, the sun sends forth his beams to gild the 
mountains and to gladden the plains just as he did before. 
The Union, too, the bright and glorious Union, like the rain- 
bow of promise, still bespands the continent. See how beouti- 
fully it curves along the blue arch of Heaven, from the great 
lakes of the north to the Gulf of Mexico on the south. How 
gloriously does it shine all along the shores of the Atlantic — 
then rising above the eastern mountains, pours its full blaze of 
glory over the magnificent valley of the Mississippi; still on- 
ward, over the Rocky Mountains, it passes the far distant Oregon, 
until it illuminates the great Pacific with all its bays and rivers 



SPEECH AT ATHENS. 



201 



and harbors. The Union its glorious arch — the rainbow of 
hope and promise — oh, may it last and endure forever. 

But I have spoken of Oregon. She is yours by discovery, 
yours by settlement, yours by purchase from Spain. Your 
own people are there, many thousands of them, and more are 
on the way or preparing to set out at no distant period. It is 
larger and richer by far, than all the New England States put 
together. The English are there likewise ; they are there by 
your permission, for the distinct and specified purpose of fishing, 
hunting and trading chiefly in furs. Being there for one pur- 
pose, they insist on staying there as either sole or joint owners 
of the country. I have not time now to investigate the Eng- 
lish claim; but I have examined it well. I have reported on 
it to the American Congress, and I do not hesitate to reaffirm 
the declaration of President Polk, that " our title to Oregon is 
clear and unquestionable." Session after session has the dem- 
ocratic party been endeavoring to extend our laws over our 
people and to give them the benefit of our protection. At the 
last session I reported a bill for that purpose. It was opposed 
by Mr. Adams, Mr. Joseph R. Ingersoll and others of the 
whig party, but finally passed by a large majority, (two or 
three to one,) many of the whig party voting with us. I wa3 
pained to see that every whig from Tennessee voted against it. 
Still it passed and was sent to the Senate. There a motion 
was made to take it up. That motion failed, I think, by two 
votes, and I regretted extremely to see a measure so national 
in its character, so just and necessary to our own people, fail 
by the votes of the two Senators from Tennessee. Sirs, I can 
excuse a Senator or any body else for voting against Texas a 
thousand times sooner than for voting against Oregon. Texas 
belonged toothers, and we might buy it or except of it as we 
chose ; but Oregon was our country, those who were there 
were bound to us by allegiance, and we were bound to them by 
all the ties of duty, of honor and of blood to give them our pro- 
tection. They are there in sight of British court houses and 
dungeons, liable every day to be arrested and cast into those 
dungeons ; to be tried before British judges and juries, and 
then finally taken away to the whipping post and lashed by a 
British officer until the blood runs from the quivering flesh to 



202 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES, 

the very ground on which they stand. And yet when they turn 
their eyes to the American capitol for protection, all they can 
get is some idle anecdote of a Dutchman who had never heard 
of Oregon. An American Senator cracking his jokes whilst 
his countrymen may be bleeding ! The negotiations are still 
going on between the two countries, and I sincerely hope may 
lead to an amicable adjustment. Still, however, it becomes 
the American people to stand prepared at all times to assert, 
maintain and defend their rights. America may be the last 
asylum of liberty for the human family. In almost every other 
country the just and ecmal rights of man have been cloven 
down by the sword, or usurped by the kings, princes, and po- 
tentates of the earth. Here liberty has reared her favorite 
temple. She has laid its foundations deep and wide. Her 
bulwarks have been made strong, and the ministers who attend 
her altars and the worshippers who throng her gates should 
never surrender it but with their lives. Never was there a peo- 
ple who possessed a finer or nobler country. Go up with me 
in imagination and stand for awhile on some lofty summit of 
the Rocky Mountains. Let us take one ravishing view of this 
broad land of liberty. Turn your face toward the Gulf of 
Mexico, what do you behold? Instead of one lone star faintly 
shining in the far distant south, a whole galaxy of stars of the 
first magnitude are bursting on your vision and shining with a 
bright and glorious effulgence. Now turn with me to the west 
— the mighty west — where the setting sun dips her broad disk 
in the western ocean. Look away down through the misty 
distance to the shores of the Pacific, with all its bays and har- 
bours and rivers. Cast your eyes as far as the Russian pos- 
sesions in latitude fifty-four degrees and forty minutes. What 
a new world lies before you. How many magnificent States 
to be the future homes of the sons and daughters of freedom. 
But you have not yet gazed on half this glorious country. 
Turn now your face to the east, where the morning sun first 
shines on this land of liberty. Away yonder, you see the im- 
mortal old thirteen, who achieved our independence ; nearer 
to us lie the twelve or fifteen States of the great valley of the 
Mississippi stretching and reposing like so many giants in their 
slumbers. ! now I see your heart is full — it can take in no 



SPEECH AT ATHENS. 203 

more, who now feels like he was a party man, or a southern 
man, or a northern man ? Who does not feel that he is an 
American, and thankful to Heaven that his lot was cast in 
such a goodly land ? When did mental vision ever rest on 
such a scene ? Moses, when standing on the top of Mount 
Fisgah, looking over on the promised land, gazed not on a 
scene half so lovely. O ! let us this day vow that whatever 
else we may do, by whatever name we may be called, we 
will never surrender one square acre of this goodly heritage to 
the dictation of any king or potentate on earth. Swear it ! 
swear it my countrj'men, and let Heaven record the vow for- 
ever. What if the English Lion shall begin to growl ? What 
if he shall presently fill the air with his roar ? Armed with 
right and justice on our side, we fear him not. Our fathers did 
not fear him before us. Let him roar. The American Eagle, 
your own high bird of liberty, is even now pluming her wings 
for her loftiest flight, and will presently utter notes of bolder 
defiance than England's Lion ever heard. 



SPEECH. 

Extracts from the Speeches of Aaron V. Brown, at Gallatin, 
Clarhsville, and Jackson, June, 1847. 



When Gov. Brown rose to reply, he said, that he addressed 
the large assembly present as the democratic candidate for 
Governor. For nearly two years he had enjoyed the honors of 
that exalted station, and he wished now to return to his fellow- 
citizens at large who contributed to that event the homage of 
his sincere and profound gratitude. To preside over such a 
noble and gallant State, to contribute any thing valuable to 
her prosperity in peace, or to her glory in war, ought to fill up 
the measure of any man's ambition. To me (said Gov. B.) 
such an honor ought to be, as it has been, peculiarly gratifying. 
She is the land of my youth and the home of my manhood. 
Within her verdant bosom lie buried nearly all of my kindred. 
No wonder, then, that I should honor a State consecrated by so 
many sad and tender remembrances. No wonder that I 
should love her lofty mountains, her deep, majestic rivers, her 
wide luxuriant valleys, and more than all, her brave, hardy, 
and industrious people. Before such a people I again appear, 
and will hold their approbation of my past conduct as my 
highest reward, and the richest inheritance to be transmitted 
to my children. 

How I have performed my civil duties, (continued Governor 
Brown,) may be judged of by the great fact that neither my 
competitor, the convention which nominated ]iim, nor the pub- 
lic press of the country, has complained of any failure on my 
part. How I have performed my military duties may be found 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 205 

in that page of our country's history, where it stands recorded 
that our brave and gallant volunteers — -drawn equally and 
fairly from every portion of the State — were earliest in the 
field, foremost in the fight, covering themselves, their kindred, 
and their country with unfading laurels and undying honors. 

But, (says Gov. Brown,) I must leave whatever relates to 
myself and to the humble part which I have borne in the great 
events connected with my official action, in order to reply to 
the extraordinary speech of my competitor, to which you have 
just listened : the most extraordinary one, I will venture to re- 
peat, that any one in this large assembly ever did hear. He 
himself has told you that we are in the midst of war, that a 
bloody flag is waving over us ; that the Goddess of Peace, in 
her white robes, has departed from our land, and that, in her 
stead, the grim-visaged God of War is now scowling over our 
country. And yet, in all that hour and a half which he occu- 
pied, he breathed not one word of censure against our Mexi- 
can enemy. He spoke loud and eloquently against his own 
countrymen, but could not find it in his heart to say one soli- 
tary word against the Mexicans. He has charged that Con- 
gress has done wrong, that the democrats have done wrong, 
that the President has done wrong ; but the Mexicans, our en- 
emies who came over in the night time and first commenced 
this war, by killing and murdering our citizens, my competitor 
does not blame for a single act, so far as we can learn from 
him. When Demosthenes rose to address his countrymen of 
Greece it was to denounce, in tones of thunder, the Macedo- 
nian enemies of his country. When Patrick Henry rose to 
address his countrymen, in the dark and trying years of the rev- 
olution, it was to nerve the arms and embolden the heart of the 
people to resist the despotism of England. When Clay, and 
Grundy, and Lowndes, rose to speak in the second war of in- 
dependence, it was to pour forth the full tide of their eloquence 
against the proud mistress of the seas, for the impressment of 
our gallant seamen. But now, how changed the scene ! Now, 
in time of war, when our gallant countrymen are bleeding on 
every battle-field of Mexico, an American orator can rise up 
and talk for hours against his own countrymen, and utter not 
one word against the wanton and wicked invaders of his own 



206 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

country ! Look, (said Gov. Brown,) even to that anecdote 
with which my competitor sought to amuse you. He has told 
it all round the State. It is the story of the two gamblers, 
playing at cards ; the one an old gambler, the other young and 
inexperienced. In the same town, he tells you, there was an 
infirm, harmless old man, whose name was Harsey, not pres- 
ent with the gamblers, nor in any way concerned in their dissi- 
pation. Presently, says his story, the old gambler began to 
cheat the young one, who resented it by saying, "if you do 
that again I'll knock your teeth down your throat." " Don't 
do that !" says the old gambler, " for if you do I'll go down in 
town and beat old Harsey to death. I offer you no opology, 
said Gov. Brown, for introducing my competitor's anecdote 
into so serious a part of this debate. I do it to show you the 
great fact, that every thing is to be said in disparagement of 
our own countrymen, and nothing prejudicial to oar enemies. 
Here our Government is compared to an old bloated, cheating 
gambler, while Mexico is compared to a poor, harmless, inno- 
cent old man ! The idea is, that our Government was too 
cowardly to return the threatened blows of England about Or- 
egon, but meanly turned to get satisfaction out of poor, harm- 
less, innocent Mexico ! Would the immortal orators and pa- 
triots of the revolution, or of the second war of independence, 
ever have consented thus to disparage their own countrymen? 
Mexico innocent ! Gracious God! Only remember our country- 
men who have been " plundered, and maimed, and imprisoned, 
and, without cause and reparation," in the emphatic language 
of Gen. Taylor, and repeated substantially by Mr. Allen A. 
Hall, the ablest whig editor of the State. Mexico innocent ! 
Look at this very invasion, (for your whole party in the Senate 
declared that it was an invasion,) — for what was it made ? Not 
to burn a few towns and to slaughter a few thousand of our 
people: no, not for that, bad as it would be, but to tear the 
whole State of Texas out of this Union — to tear down her whole 
constitution and laws, to overturn the altars of her religion, and 
to carry her once more under the yoke of Mexican anarchy, 
worse than despotism itself. Yet in the face of such an out- 
rage as this invasive war — in the face of all the " plundering, 
and maiming and imprisoning" of our people — in the face of 



MEXICAN Wi.t. 207 

all this injustice, and outrage, and crime, and murder, my 
competitor every day compares Mexico to a "poor, innocent, 
harmless old man" whilst his own country is compared to a 
dissipated, bloated, cheating old gambler ! 

And now, said Gov. B., I am ready to answer the question 
of my competitor — " why James K. Polk has not gone to the 
war ?" He could not leave the government at Washington 
without evil consequences. Did Mr. Madison go to the war 
of 1812! But my aim is mainly to answer his question, why / 
have not gone to the war. It might be answer enough to say to 
him you have set me no example, and until that is done you have 
no right to complain. But more seriously ; I have not gone 
to the Mexican war because my countrymen have assigned to 
me duties as Governor of the State for two years in prefer- 
ence to all others ; and I so performed them that neither he 
nor the Convention that nominated him have complained of 
any failure on my part. I have so performed them, too, in re- 
ference to this war, that her gallant volunteers were among 
the earliest in the field, foremost in the fight — covering them- 
selves, their kindred and. country with undying honors. I have 
another reason for my competitor. My countrymen have 
lately assigned me my present position of meeting you in this 
canvass, to fight against you, and Corwin and Webster, and all 
your coadjutors, in all your varieties of opinion about this war. 
We need soldiers at home as well as in Mexico. I have been 
more than two months engaged in this warfare, and with the 
blessing of God I will fight it out to the last. When the 5th 
of August shall come, it shall find me bravely battling under 
that noble banner, on which is inscribed " FOR MY COUN- 
TRY IN PEACE, FOR MY COUNTRY IN WAR." 
When this warfare is ended, that banner shall be, the proud 
emblem of my victory. But if I fall from sickness, if some 
pestilential disease of the West shall strike me down I will 
fall nobly, with that glorious banner waving over me. 

Let us now for a moment examine this favorite position of 
my competitor. What is it? However this war may have 
come, rightfully or wrongfully, justly or unjustly, he is for prose- 
cuting it to a successful and honorable peace ! What ! prose- 
cute an unjust war ? How can you prosecute an unjust war 



208 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

to an honorable peace ? It is an absurdity in morals. You 
may discontinue an unjust war by making a treaty of peace, 
which might be honorable according to circumstances, but you 
can never make an honorable peace by the prosecution of an 
unjust war. But my competitor relieves himself from this di- 
lemma by adopting the maxim that he is for his country right 
or wrong. That is the maxim of the regular soldier and sailor 
acting under the command of his superior officer. Not so with 
the statesman or the private citizen, who may or may not, at 
his own vocation, engage in the campaign. With him , the in- 
quiry rises up high above all others : Is this war just or un- 
just ? Justice is the highest and noblest attribute of God — in- 
justice, whether of individuals or of nations, is the unhallowed 
work of evil and demoniac spirits ; and I this day declare, that 
if I believed this war was unjust in its origin, I would not vote 
another dollar to the debt, nor send another man to swell the 
tide of blood already shed in its prosecution. No. I would 
say to Taylor and Scott, come home, come home with your 
armies — your cause is unjust, Mexico is an innocent and in- 
jured nation — come home — the lightnings of heaven will blast 
your eagles, or the earth open her mighty bosom and swallow 
you up with an earthquake. My competitor tells you that the 
land is burdened by the debt of this war ! Will he swell and 
increase that debt, or will he call on you to swell and increase 
it, until he has first shown you that the war is just ? He tells 
you the land is filled with mourning and sorrow — with the 
lamentations of widows and orphans, and yet proclaims it, 
that he would deepen the mourning and swell the tide of lam- 
entation and woe, whether the war be right or wrong — just 
or unjust. 

This is the great question which my competitor declines dis- 
cussing with me — the justice of the war. For more than 
fifty days have I invited him to it, but up to this good hour 
he stands mute and silent as the grave. 

Gov. Brown said that he maintained the affirmative of this 
proposition and would now proceed to prove it. 

My first witness (said Gov. Brown) shall be Mr. Clay him- 
self. In a speech at New Orleans after the war had com- 
menced, he said, " and when I see around me to-night Gen. 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 209 

Brooke and other old friends I feel half inclined to ask for 
some little nook or corner in the army in which I might serve 
in avenging the wrongs of my country." Now Mr. Clay was 
old — the fires of his youth had gone out, but when he thought 
over the wrongs of his country, he earnestly desired to avenge 
them. My next witness shall be General Taylor. In his pro- 
clamation opening the war on Mexico, — a proclamation inten- 
ded to satisfy all christian and enlightened nations of the 
earth as to the justice of our cause, he expressly states: 
w For many years our citizens have been subjected to repeated 
insults and injuries — our vessels and cargoes have been seized 
and confiscated — our merchants have been plundered and 
maimed and imprisoned without cause and without repara- 
tion. Our late effort to terminate all difficulties by peaceful 
negotiations has been rejected by Parades, and our minister of 
peace who your rulers agreed to receive, has been treated with 
indignity and insult, and Parades has declared that war exists 
between us. This war first proclaimed by him," &c. Now 
here is an enumeration of the wrongs, only alluded to by Mr. 
Clay. Let me not be told that this proclamation was made 
out at Washington and was not written by Gen. Taylor. If 
it had contained one fact that he did not know to be true 
Gen. Taylor would have signed it " by order of the War De- 
partment." But as every word was true — as Gen. Taylor 
knows it to be true, he signs his name, makes the document his 
own, and sends it forth to the world, under his own proper 
name and signature. 

But (said Gov. Brown,) this recital of our wrongs is fully 
sustained by Mr. Allen A. Hall, editor of the Nashville Whig, 
who said, on the 28th May, " that we had a just claim of long 
standing against Mexico, for not less than six millions of dol- 
lars for wanton spoliations committed by her on the property 
of our citizens." He further adds that she refuses to receive 
our ministers sent to settle all difficulties " after having 
promised to do so." Here was a theme on which my competi- 
tor might have poured out the indignant eloquence of his soul 
against the injustice of Mexico. Instead of the widow scene 
which he so often describes with a tearful eye, in order to throw 

some censure on his own government, here one was founded on 

15 



210 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

a stern reality, which might have moved the hardest heart. 
Why did he not draw you the picture of some weeping 
widow — shivering in her hovel, with her half starved and 
half naked orphans around her. Who is she ? She is the 
widow of one of those American citizens, mentioned by Gen. 
Taylor and Mr. Allen A. Hall, who had been first plundered 
of all that he had in the world, then imprisoned without cause 
in the mines of Mexico, until exposed in the cold damp vaults, 
far from his wife and children, who are now left without a 
home or a shelter, to live on the cold and doubtful charities of 
the world. Here is a picture from real life, and I call on you 
to join me in denouncing that Mexican injustice and tyranny 
that struck so foul a blow on one of our countrymen. 

But (continued Gov. Brown,) I have not done with the tes- 
timony of Mr. Hall yet. He says expressly " that Mexico 
had pursued a course to the United States which rendered it 
imperative on the latter to force her to a settlement of the 
grave difficulties existing between the two countries," and 
challenges any man of any party to maintain to the contrary. 
Yes, Mr. Hall challenges any man of any party ; as much as 
to say to my competitor, " I don't care if you are the candidate 
of the whig party, I am the Editor of the whig party and I 
challenge even you to controvert my position." But my 
competitor has taken up the challenge and they may fight it 
out lustily between themselves. 

But my competitor may ask, was this war commenced by us 
for this indemnity of six millions ? I answer that we did not 
commence it all. Mexico commenced it by an invasion for the 
reconquest of Texas, and we have carried it on " for indemnity 
for the past and security for the future." So the question 
still recurs, is it not just to have carried it on for these pur- 
poses ? After the battles of the 8th and 0th on the Rio 
Grande, our country was relieved, it is true, from invasion for 
the present, but no one could tell how soon it might occur 
again. Mexico refused to negotiate at all, or even hold any 
sort of diplomatic intercourse with us, and might dash her 
armies back upon us at any moment she might please. We 
were therefore bound to carry on the war first commenced by 
her until safe and honorable peace could be extorted from her, 



THE MEXICAN WAR, 211 

securing us against future invasion, and extorting from her 
that indemnity which she herself had often acknowledged to 
be justly due to our people. So much then for the justice of 
this war. 

Gov. Brown further maintained that it is a war of self-de- 
fence against invasion, and could not, therefore, have been 
avoided without dishonor. Mexico (said the Gov.) declared 
this war first ; Gen. Taylor tells you she did. She not only 
declared it first, but she commenced it first ; she crossed the Rio 
Grande in the night time, and made the attack on Thornton's 
detachment, killing some and taking others prisoners. This 
was the first blood shed in this war. What next ? The next 
day they way-laid General Taylor on the road-side, when he 
was passing from one encampment to another, and made an 
attack upon his army, and the battle of Palo Alto was fought. 
This was the second time that the blood of your countrymen 
flowed in this war. What next ? The next day he was 
assailed by the Mexican army on the same march to his upper 
encampment, and the battle of Resaca de la Palma was 
fought, which was the third time that the blood of your coun- 
trymen was made to flow like water in this war. Congress 
heard the news. The President recommended a declaration 
of war. It was declared, with only fourteen dissenting voices. 
The nation flew to arms, and more than 200,000 of our coun- 
trymen offered to volunteer to drive the insolent invader from 
our soil. 

And now, (said the Governor,) my competitor every day 
makes an argument to prove that this march over the Rio 
Grande and these attacks on our army were not an invasion 
of our country. I maintain that they were, and will now 
furnish him with proof that he never will be able to overturn. 
When Congress heard the news that the river had been crossed 
and our army attacked, they voted ten millions of dollars and 
50,000 volunteers, and directed the President " to prosecute 
said war to a speedy and successful termination." Mr. Critten- 
den moved to strike out these words and to insert the following : 
" to repel invasion, and otherwise prosecute hostilities until the 
country be secured from the danger of further invasion ;" and 
Crittenden, and Corwin, and Barrow, and Berrien, and indeed 



212 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

every whig Senator present, voted for them ! So by the vote 
of the whole whig party in the Senate, when the Rio Grande 
was passed, our country was invaded. Let this record be 
transcribed on your memories ; for as long as that journal ex- 
ists, so long must it prove that my competitor is wrong — wrong 
in saying that Mexico extended to the Neuces — wrong in say- 
ing that Texas did not extend to the Rio Grande. Crittenden 
says he is wrong ; Berrien, and Archer, and Barrow, and all 
his whig friends in the Senate, declare that he is wrong. Be- 
sides these, his friends, Mr. Adams, and Clay, and Webster, 
have all stated that Texas did extend to the Rio Grande. Mr. 
Jefferson, and Mr. Madison, and Monroe, and Jackson, all held 
the same thing ; and the only authority relied on by my com- 
petitor is Mr. Senator Benton, in his speech on the Tyler 
treaty. Mr. Benton, in that speech was evidently alluding to 
the upper Rio Grande, not the lower part, on which the army 
was marched. Judge Breese, a Senator from Illinois, making 
a speech, as I understand, in Mr. Benton's presence, drew this 
distinction in reference to Mr. Benton's speech, between the 
upper and lower Rio Grande, without correction by that Sena- 
tor. With that distinction Mr. Benton would be right — with- 
out it he would be wrong, and the only man of distinction in 
all America who, to my knowledge, holds a different doctrine. 
My competitor should remember that Mr. Benton was speak- 
ing against the boundary of the Tyler treaty, when annexa- 
tion was rejected. It was afterward accomplished, under reso- 
lution for which Mr. Benton voted, and to which he made what 
he considered an important amendment. Now, if his opinions 
were such as my competitor ascribes to him, how could he 
have finally voted for annexation as he did ? 

But I proceed, said Gov. Brown, to give some further evi- 
dences that Texas as annexed to the United States did extend 
to the Rio Grande. 1st. I rely on old maps showing that river 
to have been the boundary of Louisiana. 2d. On old histories 
referred to by our negotiators in relation to this fact. 3d. 
That after the battle of San Jacinto, the whole Mexican army 
was ordered out of Texas, and over the Rio Grande, and never 
did return, and make any reconquest of any portion of the 
country on the east side of that river. Now why did Texas 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 213 

establish her independence up to the Colorado ? Only be- 
cause she drove her enemies over that river. Why up to the 
Nueces ? Only because she drove her enemies over that river. 
Why up to the Rio Grande ? Only because she drove them over 
the Rio Grande. Why no further than that river ? Because 
she drove them no further. I rely not on the treaty made with 
Santa Anna, when a prisoner. That might possibly be void, 
but I rely on the fact that the Mexican troops did actually 
withdraw from the country, clear over the Rio Grande river, 
and never after successfully re-invaded it. 4th. That when Gen. 
Wool, (the Mexican General of that name) was about to invade 
Texas, the year before annexation was accomplished, he is- 
sued a proclamation clearly indicating where Mexico consider- 
ed the boundary of Texas to be. His work of death and 
destruction was to begin, the moment he passed one league 
on this side of the Rio Grande — one league on this side, and 
every living soul that he might meet with was to be treated as 
Texan rebel. But why not those who lived on the river and 
within one league? Because he knew that those persons were 
mere temporary occupants of huts, near the river for purposes 
of fishing, or in some way concerned in the navigation of that 
river. Such temporary occupants, he knew to be Mexicans in 
fact although living in Texas , and therefore spared them in his 
bloody decree. 

I have, said Gov. Brown, one other Mexican authority, 
which I will now present to my competitor. After the battle 
of Buena Vista an American officer had occasion to be sent to 
Santa Anna's quarters, and something was said about Gen. 
Taylor's desire for peace. His reply should forever engrave 
itself on the memory of my competitor, " we can never say 
anything of peace whilst the Americans are on this side of the 
Bravo." Not whilst the Americans are on this side of the 
Nueces — no, no, whilst they are on this side of the Bravo. Will 
my competitor out Herod Herod ? Will he beat Santa Anna 
himself, in surrendering more of his own country than Santa 
Anna is willing to claim ! But he insists that several of the 
Mexican States had been extended in modern times over the 
Rio Grande, as far as the Nueces. Well, and suppose for 
the sake of argument only, that they had been. In 1835 



214 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTIIER SPEECHES. 

the States had been all consolidated by the usurpations 01 
Santa Anna; and when Texas was invaded she drove her 
enemies back, and drove them back, as I have already 
shown, to the Rio Grande, and so obliterated the boun- 
daries of so much of Tamaulipas as ever projected on 
this side of that river. By revolution as to part and by con- 
quest if you please of the balance, the whole republic from the 
Sabine to the Rio Grande became free and independent. 

That republic by her constitution claimed up to the Rio 
Grande — she laid off counties up to the Rio Grande. The 
county of San Patricio, in which Corpus Christi is situated, ex- 
tends from the Nueces to the Rio Grande, and up the latter 
river more than one hundred miles. That county votes, I un- 
derstand, about one hundred and forty or one hundred and eighty 
votes, and within that county resides one of the present mem- 
bers of the American Congress. In this very disputed territory! 
How came he to be recognized as a member, if the United 
States did not extend to the Rio Grande? We may well ima- 
gine how your Congress would be startled by the claim of a 
Mexican, to a seat in the American Congress. His credentials 
are presented, his residence in the county of San Patricio, in 
the very territory now in dispute, is avowed, and yet the whole 
house hails him as a true and lawful member of that illustrious 
body. Is this no recognition of boundary to that river, by the 
Congress of the United States? However this may be, I will 
give another directly and unequivocally on the point ; previ- 
ously to the march of our army to the Rio Grande, Congress 
had declared that disputed territory a collection district, by es- 
tablishing a custom house at Corpus Christi, west of the Nueces, 
and appointed a proper officer to discharge the duties of the 
station, Here is direct, positive and undeniable evidence that 
Congress, our Congress, recognized Texas as a State, west of 
the Nueces. But how far west of the Nueces ? Certainly far 
enough to take in the town of Corpus Christi. But no farther? 
Yes as far west as our population extended in the county of 
San Patricio. How far was that ? The answer of to day, will 
not be the answer of to morrow, for settlers are widening out 
and settling north and west, in that county, every day, and is 
it possible, that we have no more fixed and certain boundary 



THE MEXICAN WiR. 215 

up to which the President can extend the protection of our 
arms than this ! And yet so runs the argument of my com- 
petitor — on, Texas, settled, populated Texas, now goes far 
west of the Xueces — her counties have gone clear to the Rio 
Grande river, her land officers have gone there, her judicial 
districts have gone there, and her judges take jurisdiction over 
persons and property there ; up to that boundary, the Presi- 
dent was bound by law, by his oath, by the constitution to ex- 
tend the protection of your armies. 

Gov. Brown said, that the point on which his competitor 
had lately dwelt with the greatest emphasis, was, that " the 
war was brought on by James K. Polk, in ordering the army 
to be marched to the Rio Grande," " that whether that river 
were the proper boundary or not, it was left, in the resolution 
of annexation, an open boundary, and Congress alone, and not 
the President, could say where the boundary was." 

To all this Gov. Brown replied, that his competitor had main- 
tained this long enough, others had maintained it long 
enough, and that it was now high time to stop it. "I 
maintain," said Governor Brown, " that this western bound- 
ary ivas not left open at all — not open for a moment — that it 
was closed up forever — closed as to Texas, closed as to the 
United States, closed as to the whole world, but only liable to 
be opened at some future time, if any foreign government 
should choose to open it." He repeated, " closed now against 
the whole world, but only liable to be opened and settled if 
Mexico should desire it." He then read the resolution of an- 
nexation, thus: " Congress doth consent that the territory pro- 
perly included within and rightfully belonging to the Republic 
of Texas, maybe erected into a new State," &c; " said State 
to be formed subject to the adjustment of this Government of 
all questions of boundary that may arise with other Govern- 
ments." These are the words — "that may arise" 1 — may here- 
after of course. But of course if no such question should ever 
arise, Texas stands in the Union, fully in the Union, a part of 
the United States, to be defended from invasion like all other 
States, no further action of Congress being at all necessary in 
relation to her boundary. With what boundary was Tennes- 
see admitted into the Union ? With that mentioned in her 



216 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

constitution. With what boundaries were Iowa and Wiscon- 
sin admitted? That mentioned in their constitutions. So 
Texas was admitted, with the boundary mentioned in her con- 
stitution ; but if or provided any question of boundary should 
be raised by any other Government, then and not till then, 
could the boundary be opened for further settlement. Now 
had any Government, up to this time, attempted or desired to 
open the question of the western boundary of Texas? None 
whatever. We thought Mexico might wish to open it, and sent 
a minister there for the purpose ; but she drove him away, say- 
ing she had no question of boundary to open — she was aiming, 
to reconquer Texas, not to the Nueces, but the whole of Texas, 
even to the Sabine. Well, we sent him again ; he was driven 
off, and again the cry wa3, " the whole of Texas or none." 

Now with this plain statement of facts, who can contend that 
the boundary of Texas was left open for the future action of 
Congress ? Look to the absurdity and cruelty of such an ar- 
gument. The President sends our army to the Sabine. There 
Gen. Taylor takes his position, and he and his brave army 
look over to the west. They see the Mexican army pass over 
the Rio Grande and invade Texas. Can't we fight them now ? 
" No," says my competitor's argument, " the western boundary 
is open and unsettled." But look ! they cross the Nueces ! 
Can't we fight them now ? "No," says my competitor's argu- 
ment, " the western boundary is open." But look ! they have 
crossed the Colerado ! the towns are all on fire I The Texan 
people are fleeing before them ! Can't we fight them now ? 

No, not yet," says my competitor's argument, " the western 
boundary is open !" But look ! yonder are the Mexican lancers, 
striking down and piercing through the poor decripedold men, 
unable to flee from them, and yonder the licentious Mexican is 
laying his rude hands on the shrieking female — we almost 
hear their screams under the outrage — O! can we not fight 
them now? "No, no," says my competitor's argument, "not 
yet, not yet ; the westernboundary is openV Good God ! have 
reason and justice and humanity fled the earth, that such doc- 
trines are maintained among an enlightened people ? 

Such must be the consequences at least of my competitor's ar- 
guments on this point. 



tc 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 217 

And now (said Gov. Brown) I come to ask the question, 
who advised the march of our army to the Rio Grande ? General 
Taylor himself ! In his letter of the 4th October, 1845, he 
says : " For these reasons, our position thus far has, I think 
been the best possible. But now that the entire force will soon 
be concentrated, it may well be questioned whether the views 
of Government will be best carried out by our remaining at 
this point. It is with great deference that I make any sugges- 
tion on topics that may become matter of delicate negotia- 
tion, but if our Government, in settling the question of boundary 
makes the line of the Rio Grande an ultimatum, I cannot doubt 
that the settlement will be greatly facilitated and hastened 
by our taking possession at once of one or two suitable points 
on or quite near that river. Our strength and state of prepa- 
ration should be displayed in a manner not to be mistaken. 
However salutary may be the effect produced upon the border 
people by our presence here (Corpus Christi,) we are too far from 
the frontier to impress the government of Mexico with our 
readiness to vindicate by force of arms, if necessary, our title 
to the Rio Grande. * * * Our advance to the Rio Grande 
Will itself produce a powerful effect, and it may be that the 
common navigation of the river will not be disputed." 

Here you see (said Gov. Brown) he advised the march as 
well calculated not to provoke war, but to preserve peace. 
He advised it as necessary and proper to vindicate our title to 
that river and to secure its joint navigation. He advised as 
an able General and a wise statesman. The President followed 
it, and now the strange spectacle is presented, that Taylor, 
who gave the advice, is to be exalted to the Presidency, whilst 
the President, who followed it, is to be pulled down with dis- 
honor from it. It is no answer to say that Taylor only ad- 
vised it in the event that the Government, in settling the boun- 
dary, should make the Rio Grande an ultimatum; for I have 
shown that the Government had so settled and negotiated 
the boundary — in other words, that Congress had so settled it. 
Settled it by receiving a member residing in the disputed terri- 
tory — settled it by having been notified for more than a year 
that the American army had been located in the disputed ter- 
ritory. Such information had been reported to Congress, and 



218 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

was lying upon the table of every member of that body from 
day to day for months together, without complaint and with- 
out objection. If then the Government, and not the President, 
had the settlement of that question, the government had set- 
tled it, repeatedly and conclusively settled it. 

In the face of these recorded and undeniable facts, my com- 
petitor still insists that the march to the Rio Grande was the 
cause of the war, and cites Mr. Calhoun as his authority. Mr. 
Calhoun did say so in one of his speeches, but I have shown 
my competitor several times that he was corrected the very 
next morning by the publication of Marks' letter. Marks was 
not authorized by Gen. Arista to communicate any thing to 
Gen. Taylor. He was acting on his own individual opinions 
and rcsposibility. 

So much for Mr. Calhoun's authority. 

What are the opinions of Mr. Benton, my competitor's fa- 
vorite witness as to boundary, as to the march of the army to 
thatriver? " In saying this, I do not consider the march to the 
Rio Grande, to have been the cause of the war, any more than 
I consider the British march on Concord and Lexington, to have 
been the cause of American revolution, or the crossing of the 
Rubecon by Caesar to have been the cause of the civil war in 
Rome. The march to the Rio Grande, brought on the collision 
of aims, but so far from being the cause of the war, it was 
itself the effect of these causes." This authority of his fa- 
vorite witness, throws my competitor back on the position, that 
after all, the annexation of Texas was the true cause of this 
Mexican war. In assuming this position, his competitor dif- 
ferred with all his whig friends from Tennessee, and with 
Messrs. Ewing, Gentry, Crozier, and Milton Brown in partic- 
ular. Gov. B. read from the speech of the latter gentleman, 
declaring " that he took issue with any one who assumed that 
position." How his competitor would settle that issue, so 
boldly tendered by Mr. M. Brown, when he reached the Wes- 
tern District, he did not pretend to know ; but he was willing to 
take it, that annexation was the cause of the war, and would 
now demand of his competitor why he and his party friends 
of this State had annexed her ? When John Tyler first pro- 
posed it, they rejected it — they voted down his treaty and said 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 



219 



the right time had not arrived for its consummation. The 
following winter, they came forward and declared that the right 
time had then come, and Mr. Milton Brown and Senator Fos- 
ter* offered resolutions in their respective houses for the con- 
summation of that great measure. In the House of Represen- 
tatives, every whig from this State finally voted for them. Mr. 
Brown wrote to Gov. Jones that his proposition was " an ori- 
ginal wins: proposition, and received only a reluctant support 
from the democrats." He wrote, also, that what he had done 
" was entirely consistent with the course and the doctrines of 
the whig party in the Presidential campaign of the preceding 
summer, and that Texas was then free as any nation on the' 
globe." Well, does not all this show that annexation, though 
at first rejected by the whigs of this State, was finally adopted 
and sanctioned by them ? I repeat (said Gov. B.) theft it was 
finally adopted and sanctioned by them. Why, sir, did you do so? 
Why, if you knew that war would come of it, did you do so ? 
You prophecied that if done in the way and at the time it was 
proposed by Mr. Tyler, with the sanction and approbation of 
Gen. Jackson and the democratic party, that war would be the 
consequence. But you never did prophecy that it would pro- 
duce war if done at the time and in the manner proposed by 
Mr. Foster and Mr. Milton Brown. You said expressly to the 
contrary. Now, it was finally done in your own way, and in 
your own time, and still you cry out that it has produced the 
war ! Well, I repeat then, why did you do it ? My competi- 
tor (said Gov. Brown) often says that I prophecied falsely when 
I used to say that war would not come of it. Why, sir, you 
said the same thing; for no member of your party in Congress 
from this State ever said or believed that war would come of 
it as finally adopted upon your own proposition. It was only 
your prophecy, that it would have come if annexation had ta- 
ken place at that time and in the manner it was first proposed. 
But it has come, says my competitor. Aye, it has come, but 
not of annexation — not of the march of the army to the Rio 
Grande — no, it has come of the course pursued by you and 
your party. Mexico had slumbered for nearly ten years over 
her title — she had heard all the great powers of Christendom 
declare that she had no title ; but when she heard from my 



22 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

competitor and his party in 1844 that she did have a title to 
Texas — that it would be downright robbery to take it away by 
annexation, her hopes revived, her cupidity was awakened, her 
thirst for power and dominion over a portion of the Anglo Saxon 
race was increased ; and thus this war, with all its debt and 
horrors, might well be laid at the door of my competitor and his 
party friends. They gave " aid and comfort" to Mexico in as- 
serting her claim to Texas, whatever they may have done in 
the way of giving aid and comfort to her in maintaining it in 
this war. You, sir, said Gov. Brown, by your speeches and 
arguments, and your whole tribe of public speakers, in 1844, 
substantially told Mexico to assert her title — that it was a 
good one — so good, that in any war which might come from her 
asserting it, Heaven itself would take sides with her against 
your own country. And now, sir, said Gov. B., if war has 
come from annexation, it was your annexation ; and if your 
prophecies that war would come have been fulfilled, you have 
wrought their fulfilment by encouraging Mexico to assert her 
claim. That assertion of her claim, is this very war which we 
are discussing. 

And now, said Gov. B., I have said all that my time will al- 
low on the justice of war — on its being a war of self defence 
against the invasion of Mexico. Let me now ask when was 
the justice or the necessity of this war, first questioned in 
Tennessee? Not when I issued my proclamation twelve months 
ago, for volunteers to engage in it. No, not then, for when 
I called for three thousand, lo! thirty thousand of the brave 
and hardy sons of Tennessee, rushed to our standard. Whigs 
and Democrats equally and alike, rushed forward to the call. 
But they came not alone ! fathers and mothers, and kindred, 
and friends, came with them to the place of rendezvous, to 
see their final departure. When drawn up in line, just before 
the orders were given to embark on board the boats, you might 
have seen the tall fine looking young volunteer, leaving the 
line and wending his way to some group stationed on the 
beach. Where is he going ? To shake hands with his father 
for the last time, or to kneel before his mother to receive her 
last blessings. What is it that sustains his noble heart, at such 
a trying moment? It is the proud thought that although part- 



THE MEXICAN WAR, 221 

ing with his nearest and best friends, he is going to fight for 
his country, in a just cause. What is it, that makes his mother 
willing to give up her child, perhaps her only child, to all the 
hardships and all the perils of so distant and so hazardous a 
campaign ? It is " because she is an American woman, and 
would surrender not only her child, but if necessary, would 
lay down her own life for the service of her country. " Go, go 
my son, it is like death to part with you, but go and drive 
back the insolent invaders of our soil, and if necessary carry 
the war to the enemy's country." The parting is over, and the 
young volunteer, springs back into line, and on he goes, never 
once doubting that he is going, in the emphatic language of 
Mr. Clay, to avenge the wrongs of his country. So went forth 
our brave and gallant volunteers, and so felt and thought all of 
their kindred and friends, who were left behind. But one 
sentiment then pervaded all classes, and all parties, in Ten- 
nessee. When did you first hear anything to the contrary of 
all this ? It was when Congress was about to assemble, Mr. 
Webster came down from the north, like a roaring lion, crying 
" impeach the President" for involving our country in war. 
The whig members from Tennessee responding too readily to 
Mr. Webster's sentiment, cried out, this is James K. Polk's 
war; and my competitor, responding too readily to them, 
boldly cries out in this very canvass, " this is James K. Polk's 
war, waged by him to glorifiy his administration" — " an 
unnecessary war brought about by an unconstitutional 
order of the President marching the army to the Rio 
Grande." Sirs, this sudden questioning of the justice, the 
necessity and propriety of this war, is the work of whig poli- 
ticians in Congress — not of the whig party of the country gen- 
erally. No, God forbid. But the work of the whig politicians 
of the last Congress. They saw the old issues one by one 
evaporating before them. The bank was dead ; distribution 
was dead ; the protective tariff of 1842 was dead ; and nothing 
seemed to be left to them but a new parly, with new issues 
and new elements to compose it. I firmly and conscientiously 
believe that such a scheme was formed at Washington, and is 
now in the process of consummation in the United States. 
Will Tennessee now unite in the formation of any such anti- 



222 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

war party? Will cither whigs or democrats, go into such an 
arrangement ? You belong to no such party now. You have 
escaped from such a vortex as yet. Will my countrymen ever 
go into it, by uniting with those who denounce this war as un- 
just, and unnecessary, or a war of aggression, on a weak, help- 
less and innocent nation? I appeal to the glory of the past — 
to the honor of the present, and to all the proud hopes of the 
future to prevent it. 

And why should you unite with those who declare this war 
to be James K. Polk's war ? Did James K. Polk declare it ? 
No he did not — you know he did not. lie advised it and Con- 
gress declared it. So James Madison advised the war of 1812 
and Congress declared it. Then it was called James Madi- 
son's war by the blue light federalists of the north, now it is 
called James K. Polk's war. Why not call it Mr. Ewing's 
war, Mr. Gentry's, Mr. Crozier's, or Mr. Cocke's, or Mr. Milton 
Brown's war. They all voted for it, and declared on the face 
of the bill that it was brought about by the act of Mexico. 
Now, my competitor will have it to be James K. Polk's war, 
brought about, not by any wrongful act of Mexico, but by the 
unconstitutional order of the President. Not by any wrongful 
act of Mexico ! Gracious God, look at this very invasion. It 
was to re-enslave a brave and gallant people who had achieved 
their independence by years of blood and suffering. They 
had achieved it by the acknowledgment of nearly all the civil- 
ized nations of the earth — they had achieved it by the solemn 
act of our country admitting them into our glorious Union — 
they had achieved it, and the flag of our country proudly 
waved over them for their safety and protection. To invade 
such a people, for the purpose of re-enslaving them, was the 
greatest outrage recorded in the annals of crime and of blood. 
Not to have resisted and prevented the foul deed, would have 
disgraced and dishonored this proud Republic forever. You 
did resist, and the uniform success of your arms, furnishes 
proof that justice and Heaven are on your side. You did re- 
sist, and the noble men who proudly bore your banner at Mon- 
terey, Vera Cruz, and Cerro Gordo arc now at home in your 
midst. How did you greet them on their return ? How did 
the old man, leaning on his staff, hobbling his way down to the 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 223 

river bank to receive his son, how did he receive him ? Did he 
say to him, " welcome back my son, welcome back ; but would 
to God you had never gone. I have lately learned from our 
members of Congress, from our whig candidate for Governor, 
and from the public papers, that you have been fighting in the 
war of James K. Polk against a weak and innocent nation, 
and I fear that all the blood you have shed will some day cry, 
like Abel's from the ground against you." Oh ! did he give 
him such a greeting as this ? If he did, that son had rather 
have died on the bloodiest field of Mexico, than to have heard 
such a rebuke from the lips of one whom he so much honored 
and loved. But no, he gave him no such salutation. You 
kindled bonfires and illuminated all your dwellings on their 
return. Honor and kindness, and every thing that gratitude 
could bestow was theirs. Would you now pluck one proud 
feather from the war plume of the soldier by telling him that 
all his toils and labors and suffering had been, not to serve 
his country, but only to glorify the administration of a mere 
man ? And what of that brave and gallant soldier who has 
not and will never return ? He fought hard and nobly in the 
battle — at last he is stricken down by the enemy. There he 
lies — his manly form stretched upon the earth, the glaze of 
death is coming over his eyeballs, the last death rattle is gurg- 
ling in his throat — he is dying in a foreign land, far from home, 
and kindred, and friends. What is it that supports him in 
this last struggle ? What is it but the hope of heaven and the 
consolation of dying in a just cause. Oh I would not make 
a speech in Congress, or anywhere else, that might rob him of 
that hope and consolation, or shake his confidence in the cause 
for which he was dying, for all this world would give or take 
from me. No, no, let him die with the confidence of that gal- 
lant volunteer from Illinois. He was stretched on the earth, 
stricken down by the enemy's ball's — he was nearly gone, but 
his hand yet clinched the trusty sword with which he had fought 
so long and so valiantly. One of his comrades came by him 
in the midst of the fight, he reached him his sword — " take 
it my friend, it can be no more service to me now — take it, and 
tell our brave comrades to fight on, fight on, our cause is just." 
These were his last words ; and oh, that they were written in 



22-4 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

letters of gold on every glorious banner that has been unfurled 
in this war! Tennessee is even now making arrangements to 
erect a monument to the gallant dead who have fallen in battle 
in this war. You will rear (said he) the massy column with its 
lofty summit towering to the skies. You will engrave the name 
of Allen and Elliot, and Martin, Ewell, and Kirkpatrick, and 
all the west — but with what honorable memorial of their glori- 
ous deeds. A very distinguished member of Congress from 
Tennessee comes forward with his inscription — "Died at Monte- 
rey, in a war of conquest and plunder." Other members from 
this State propose about the same thing. And last of all comes 
my competitor with his inscription. What is it ? " Died at 
Monterey, (or Buena Vista,) in the year 1847, in an unneces- 
sary war — in James K. Polk's war, waged by him to glorify 
his administration." Oh! (said Gov. Brown) a monument 
with such an inscription can never stand. The earth will heave 
up her bosom and by some mighty earthquake will level it to 
the ground ; or the lightning of Heaven will descend and blast 
its towering column, and shiver the massy rocks that compose 
it. No, no, let me give you a memorial worthy the noble deeds 
of these gallant dead — 

" How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, 
By all their country's wishes blest ; 
Here honor comes, a pilgrim gray, 
To bless the sod that wraps their clay ; 
And freedom shall awhile repair 
To dwell a weeping hermit here." 

Gov. Brown said : Having now disposed of all the questions 
in relation to the war, I must follow my competitor in his long, 
and loud, and numerous complaints, not against the Mexicans, 
but against his own countrymen. Congress has done wrong, 
the democrats have done wrong, the President has done wrong, 
every body has done wrong, but the plunderers and murderers 
of our people. Well, what has Congress done? She has 
repealed the protective tariff of 1842, and substituted a much 
lower one in its stead. My competitor denounces this repeal 
and vehemently advocates the restoration of the tariff of 1842. 
Two years ago, I stood on this very spot, and before a 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 225 

large portion of this very assembly, debated this subject 
with my then talented and gallant competitor. What did he 
tell you ? That James K. Polk did not intend to repeal the 
high tariff of 1842 — that he would not dare to do it — that 
James Buchanan, one of his Cabinet, would not allow him to 
do it. Well, time has overruled this vain prophecy, and we 
now know that James K. Polk did intend to repeal it ; we now 
know that he did dare to do it, and that James Buchanan did 
not prevent him. What next did he tell you ? " To hold on 
to the tariff of 1842 as the rock of your salvation ; that if you 
did repeal it, it would shut up the workshop of the mechanic, 
bring ruin on the manufacturer, strike down the wages of labor, 
and by destroying the home market of the farmer, would leave 
him with a large surplus of his crops rotting and wasting in 
his granaries." I can almost yet hear his eloquent voice call- 
ing on you to hold on to the tariff of 1842 ; to hold on to it, to 
save the mechanic, the manufacturer, the day laborer, and the 
farmer. Well, gentlemen, said Gov. Brown, time that tries 
all things — that confirms every truth and explodes every error — 
has again interposed and convinced you whether he was right 
or wrong. The tariff has been repealed, and now what do we 
behold ? The workshops of the mechanic have not been closed ; 
the blacksmith with his lusty strength is yet striking his blows 
on the anvil ; the shoemaker is drawing his thread ; the tailor 
is plying his needle ; the manufacturers of iron and wool are 
dividing their wonted profits ; whilst the farmers and planters 
are realizing prices for their stock and their produce of which 
avarice itself cannot complain. Let us pause for a moment 
and contemplate the wonderful prosperity which the people of 
happy America are this day enjoying. Look out on the broad 
ocean and see the crowded sails of commerce — bending to 
every breeze, and visiting with rapid velocity all the nations 
of the earth. Glance your eye along the course of your 
mighty rivers, and behold the thousands of steamboats, loaded 
down to their guards with the rich productions of your varied 
soils and climates. Gaze on this broad and fertile land, with 
its teeming abundance gladdening the hearts of our own hus- 
bandmen and sending life and sustenance to the famishing 

millions of Europe. Whose heart does not heave upward, 

16 



226 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

big with joy and gratitude to God, for so much goodness and 
mercy ! Would my competitor mar, if not totally destroy, all 
this prosperity and happiness, by going back to the high tariff 
and low prices of 1842? Daniel Webster himself would not 
do it. Daniel Webster, whose deep and full voice was heard 
at the preceding session of Congress crying " Repeal, re- 
peal," would not do it. The boldest whigs in the last ses- 
sion of Congress, who had united with Mr. Webster in the cry 
of "down with the democratic tariff of 1846," would not do 
it. They met at Washington city — at the time and place 
when and where these vows of repeal were all to be fulfilled. 
But when they saw that our low tariff was bringing more 
money into the Treasury than their high one — when they saw 
the iron, the cotton, the wollen, and in short the manufacturers 
of every sort, the mechanics of every description, the farmers, 
and planters, and stock raisers, were all more prosperous than 
they ever had been before — they had not the heart to repeal 
it — they had not the heart to try to repeal it. They met, and 
gazed through the winter with wonder and astonishment on 
the swelling, booming prosperity of the whole country, and 
finally adjourned and went home without once offering to re- 
peal the democratic tariff of 1846. 

Thus it is, my countrymen, that time, experience, and actual 
knowledge, have now settled the question between a high and 
low tariff. When we stood on reason and argument, you 
would not believe us. Now we stand on time, on experience, 
and actual knowledge — your knowledge, your experience. 
The great ocean crowded with commerce ; your mighty rivera 
burdened with trade ; the earth with all her mines and mineral, 
with all her fruits, and herbs, and flowers, all tell you that a 
low tariff is the best. Can my competitor stand out any longer 
against all these ? — against the roar of the ocean, the mur- 
murs of the rivers, the soft whispers of the teeming earth — 
against light, and truth, and knowledge? Nay, nay ; give it 
up and return to the ancient faith of Tennessee — to your faith 
up to 1837 ; to the faith of Hugh Lawson White and Andrew 
Jackson, Yield obedience to that light, and truth, and actual 
knowledge, which like three angel forms bending from some 
azure cloud, now beckon you to return to that faith, from which 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 227 

you never should have departed. But I cannot leave the sub- 
ject of the tariff until I have furnished you with the great fact 
which my competitor now denies, and which weighs down like 
a millstone nearly everything which can be said against the 
tariff of 1846. That fact is that the duties received under the 
present tariff for the first five or six months largely exceed (pro- 
bably by more than half a million of dollars,) the amount re- 
ceived during the same period of the preceding year under the 
tariff of 1842. 

What next in the catalogue of charges is preferred against 
Congress by my competitor ? They have established the Inde- 
pendent Treasury. Here, also, time, experience, and actual 
knowledge, have done sad work with the predictions of my 
competitor and his party. You were told by them that if the 
Independent Treasury was ever established, it would make one 
currency of rags for the people and another currency of gold 
and silver for the office-holders — that it would be a declaration 
of war against the Banks by banishing specie from the country; 
that it would become a great government bank, the most 
odious, they said, of all systems of banking; that it would be 
a union of the sword and the purse, and enable a President 
to stand erect like Ccesar, holding in the one hand the sword 
of the nation and in the other its vast treasuries, while pub- 
lic liberty would lie lacerated and bleeding at his unhallowed 
feet. O, what a picture of prophetic despotism ! Cassar, 
the great tyrant of Rome, standing aloft with a bloody sword 
in his hand, while public liberty lies pale, bleeding and dying 
at his feet ! 

Now turn your eyes slowly and gently away from this horri- 
ble and bloody picture, to the cities of New York, Philadelphia) 
Charleston, New Orleans, and St. Louis, where the Indepen- 
dent Treasury is quietly and gently working its way, collecting 
the public dues of the nation and paying them out to our sol- 
diers of the revolutionary and present war — to the officers and 
sailors of our gallant navy, and to all others who have just claims 
on the Government — accomplishing it all through the instrumen- 
tality of our fellow-citizens, without the aid of any bank what- 
soever, and inflicting, in the language of Mr. Bell, " No great 
harm to the great interests of either trade, agriculture, or com- 



228 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES, 

merce." Here were four distinct predictions of my competitor, 
every one of which has been signally disappointed. The 
oldest citizen of our country never saw the currency in a 
sounder or better condition — never saw our exchanges better 
regulated — never saw our local institutions more able to re- 
deem their liabilities — never saw such an amazing influx of 
gold and silver into the country ; still my competitor tells you 
it was not borrowed from any of the free governments of the 
earth, but finds its origin in the dark and despotic governments 
of the old world. There is no other really free government 
on earth from which it could have been borrowed ; and, in fact 
it was not borrowed from any government, either free or des- 
potic. It dates its origin in our own free and happy govern- 
ment — to the law of 1789 — the first law regulating the receipts 
and disbursement of the public moneys. The law of 1789, 
passed in the very morning of our republic, when it came pure 
and fresh from the patriots of the revolution — the law of 1789, 
signed by George Washington himself, but now extended and 
enlarged only to suit the growth and increase of our country. 
Such is the Independent Treasury now in operation — precisely 
such as Mr. Bell said it would be, speaking of it just after it 
had been passed in 1840. My competitor was a prophet, Mr. 
Bell was an historian — the one guessed at it, the other knew it. 
Thus it is that time and experience have likewise settled this 
great question, so long disputed between the parties of this 

country. 

But to that Athens speech. What was I endeavoring to do 
in making that part of it which he reads ? You and your 
party were opposing the annexation of Texas — you were op- 
posing the extension of our laws over Oregon — you were im- 
peding, by all the means in your power, the growth and en- 
largement of your own country. I wanted to liberalize and 
enlarge your patriotism. I told you that the kings of the 
earth were every day plotting your destruction — that they 
wished to put out the light of freedom in the new world, in 
jrder to reign more triumphantly over the prostrate rights and 
liberties of mankind. I called on you and your party to unite 
with me in this noble work of self-defence— to unite with me 
in extending the area of freedom from ocean to ocean, and 



THE MEXICAN WAR, 229 

from the Gulf of Mexico in the south, to the great inland seas 
of the north. To induce him to do so, I called on him to go up 
with me, in imagination, to the top of some lofty mountain of 
the west, there to look abroad upon the goodly inheritance 
which God had given us. I called on him to look toward the 
Gulf of Mexico, and gaze upon those beautiful constellations 
that were rising np there. But to my astonishment he would 
not look in that direction at all. I called upon him to look 
away toward Oregon — on all her bays, and rivers, and harbors; 
but I soon found that he would not look up in that direction. 
Baffled in this, I called upon him to turn his face to the east, 
where tjie morning sun first shines upon this land of liberty — 
to look at the old immortal thirteen who achieved our inde- 
pendence ; but, to my utter amazement, he would not look even 
at these. Thereupon I turned to him and asked, in the name 
of conscience, what country is it that you want to see ? "Oh, 
Governor, only show me some country where some day or 
other I can be a Governor !" There, now, I cried, you are too 
hard for me. Why, Moses and Aaron both put together can 
never show you such a sight as that. 

The return of Santa Anna is the next theme of unmeasured 
censure against the President. Why, says he, was not his re- 
turn prevented ? I answer, because the President could not 
have prevented it. There were a dozen ports through which 
admittance could have been obtained. But why, again asks my 
competitor, did the President give orders to Com. Connor not to 
try to prevent his return ? The President himself has answered 
the question. Parides had vowed that he never would make 
peace with the United States. A strong party in favor of 
peace was determined to turn him out, and sent to Santa Anna, 
at Cuba, to come home and assist them in the work. Now it 
would have been a strange sight to see the President shutting 
out from Mexico, by his blockade, the very man who had been 
sent for to come home, to depose Parides, and to make peace 
with this country. The public records and journals of Mexico 
all prove the fact that he was sent for expressly for these pur- 
poses. But again : no attempt was made to prevent his return, 
because Parides and many of the priests of that country had 
formed the plan of turning the government of Mexico into a 



230 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

monarchy, and calling a prince, from either France or England, 
in order more effectually to prosecute the war against the Uni- 
ted States. This great fact is proved by the proclamation of 
Gen. Taylor at the commencement of this war; it is confirmed 
by the proclamation of Gen. Scott to the Mexican people 
after the late battle of Cerro Gordo, and also by the corres- 
pondence of Mr. Slidell, our minister at Mexico, frequently 
read by my competitor. It is a great fact. A monarchy es- 
tablished on this continent ! at the very door of our Republic ! 
A monarchy sustained by an army of perhaps two hundred 
thousand men to fight against you in this war! Santa Anna 
was called for by the party opposed to this scheme, to come home 
and defeat it. Who did not then wish to see it defeated ? 
All our Presidents, from Mr. Monroe down, with perhaps one 
exception, had solemnly declared, that such a step ought to be 
and would be opposed by our Republic at the very mouth of 
the cannon. Now if President Polk had prevented Santa 
Anna's return, and this monarchical scheme had been accom- 
plished, who of his enemies would not have exclaimed, quite 
horror stricken, behold the short-sighted imbecility- of your 
President ! But my competitor objects to his return, because 
by it the war has been protracted. No, sir, no; not by his re- 
turn. It has been protracted by the course and conduct of your 
own great leaders in politics. By Webster, Corwin, Severance, 
and a host of others, whose speeches and writings have been 
published throughout Mexico. Hear what the Mexican papers 
declare about Mr. Webster and others: "By the last arrival 
from New Orleans, we have been placed in possession of late 
papers from the United States, and a majority of them magnan- 
imously denounce and condemn this war against this country 
(Mexico) as infamous, unholy, and unrighteous. Daniel Web- 
ster, the most liberal and enlightened statesman of the coun- 
try, says that the expenses of the war are more than half a mil- 
lion a day, and he has introduced resolutions into the Senate 
to impeach the cowardly Jim Polk, and turn him out of office. 
These northern barbarians cannot carry on this war very long 
at this rate, and Mr. Webster deserves the thanks of the whole 
Mexican nation, for the noble stand he has taken on the side 
of right and justice. Arise, Mexicans, and drive the invaders 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 231 

from our soil ? Mexicans can derive comfort from the fact that 
the greater part of the people of the United States are opposed 
to this war, as their papers show, and the base man who is at the 
head of the government will be exiled from power." Here is the true 
cause why this war has been procrastinated. Now look at some 
of the newspapers doubtless referred to in this Mexican newspa- 
per, (the Diario.) The Haverhill [Massachusetts] Journal says : 
" To volunteer or vote a dollar to carry on the war, is moral 
treason against the God of Heaven and rights of mankind." 
Come now nearer home, and read from the speech of Sena- 
tor Corwin, three or four hundred of which I found franked to 
one county in Tennessee : "You must call your army back ! 
you must ! unless you are willing to be thought a robber — an 
invader of your neighbors — and if your President asks me for 
men and money to carry it on, he shall have neither." Read 
now from " the Roman," one of Mr. Corwin's Ohio papers I 
think: "The volunteers — these jackasses are going off to 
loaf, prowl, murder and steal in Mexico, while the orderly part 
of the community, are to take care of their wives and children," 
&c. So much for Ohio ; now look still nearer, to Kentucky, 
your next door neighbor. The Louisville Journal, speaking of 
the fall of the Mexican Capital, says: "fallen in one of the 
most iniquitous wars ever recorded in the dark and bloody 
annals of mankind." Yes, sirs, here is the true cause of the 
procrastination of this war, the publication of all such things 
as these amongst the bigoted, ignorant and degraded people 
of Mexico — worse a thousand times worse than the return of 
Santa Anna ! But my competitor is filled with utter horror and 
amazement, that Congress did not sustain a call for informa- 
tion, as to who .was sent to Cuba by the President, to inform 
him that he might return, &c. Sirs, the President never sent 
any body there— he never wrote a line to Santa Anna, in all 
his life, nor did he ever receive one from him ; the whole insin- 
uation was a vile slander on the President, and an insult to 
the American people. The resolution was so intended and 
was voted down accordingly. If my competitor was ever to 
become a Governor, would his friends sustain a resolution in 
the Legislature, calling upon him to state what sum or sums 
of money, he distributed among the delegates at Nashville in 



232 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

order to secure his nomination, over his competitor? It would 
be an infamous slander on him, and an insult to the people 
of the State, and they would vote it down accordingly. No> 
in both these cases, the only way would be to introduce a res- 
olution, raising a committee, with power to send for persons 
and papers, to investigate the charges, and if found true to 
bring forward an impeachment against the President, or the 
Governor. I repeat that this would be the only regular and 
proper mode of proceeding in either case. 

My competitor next raises complaint against the democratic 
party in Congress, for not raising the pay of the volunteers in 
this Mexican war. Not raising their pay ! why every demo- 
crat from Tennessee, when the bill raising their pay was finally 
on its passage, voted for it — every one, I repeat every one. 
But he answers that they did not vote so at the preceding ses- 
sion. Well, I answer they did, with only one exception. My 
competitor has spread a wrong opinion on this subject, nearly 
all over the State. I now tell him to look to House Journal of 
1846, May the 11th, page 793. There in the very bill declaring 
the war, a motion was made by Mr. Chapman of Alabama, to 
amend the bill as follows : " In the 10th section of the bill 
strike out the word $8 and insert $10," so that the bill might 
read, " privates of infantry, artillery and riflemen, shall re- 
ceive $10 per month; for this every whig voted except one, 
and every democrat also except one, and both these could 
doubtless give satisfactory explanations of their votes not im- 
plying opposition to increased pay at all, so that both parties 
ought to be fairly put down as equally in favor of raising the 
monthly pay of these gallant men. 

But the volunteers were not allowed to elect their Brigadier 
and Major Generals. Well, who is to blame for that ? Not 
the President surely ! He appointed them precisely because 
the law commanded him to do it. But who passed the law ? 
Congress of course. My competitor must therefore hurl his 
thunder against that body — against his own party friends there, 
too, as well as the democrats. Did his friends want to en- 
large the rights of volunteers, by giving them the privilege of 
electing Brigadier and Major Generals ? — no such thing — let 
me read to you from the journals of 1846, page 1008, June 26: 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 



233 



Mr. Cocke moved to amend bill (211) by striking out all of the 
same that related to Brigadier Generals, and inserting the 
following : " and when the number of volunteer regiments 
from any one State offered and accepted, under the said act of 
13th May, 1846, shall be sufficient to compose a brigade, 
a Brigadier, General for the command of the same shall 
be appointed (not elected) by the authority of the State 
to which they belong, in the manner prescribed by the 
laws of said State." Sirs, you see this amendment did not 
apply to Major Generals at all; they were left by the 
admission of all parties in Congress, to be appointed by 
the President. It was confined to Brigadier Generals, 
and these were to be appointed, not elected, taken away 
from the President, who is responsible for this war, and 
transferred, not to the volunteers, oh no not to them, but the 
Governors of States, of North Carolina, of Kentucky and 
others. In Tennessee, we had no law to cover such an amend- 
ment, and to have had the benefit of it, we must have had 
a called session of the Legislature. Besides this, look to the 
date of the amendment, the 26th June, 1846. Where were 
our volunteers then ? One regiment was almost on the 
theatre of their gallantry and glory, a second one was on 
its way, whilst the third one, (cavalry) were wending their 
way through the State of Arkansas. When and where did 
they meet, when they could have elected their Brigadier 
General ? Never, if at all, until the period of their service 
was almost expired. 

He next objects to the appointments made by the President — 
that they were made from the shades of private life — that they 
were mere partisans who had never heard a hostile cannon 
roar. No special complaints have been made — no individual 
cases are mentioned of partisan or incompetent appointments. 
I must therefore meet the charge in its general aspect ; and here 
I call for the oldest and most learned man of this assembly : 
Come forward, you who have read the history of all the wars 
of ancient and modern times, and tells us whether you ever 
heard or read of any war, where every legion and every officer 
had so completely filled up the just and high expectations of 
their country ! Every man seems to have proved himself a 



234 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTIIER SPEECHES. 

soldier, and every officer seems to have emulated the fame of 
those illustrious captains who have gone before him. Honor > 
then, to all for deeds of courage, activity and skill, that would 
have emblazoned the names of a Jackson, a Carroll, or a Cof- 
fee, in the palmiest days of their glory. 

And now (said Gov. Brown,) in the last few moments of 
my time, I have a few words to say, in conclusion, to those 
gallant men who have returned from the wars, and taken their 
places again in society. Look well to what is now going on in 
the State, and elsewhere in this Union; look well to the efforts 
now making to bring this war into disrepute. The moment 
that is done, away go all the fame and the honors you have 
won in this arduous service. Let but this war become doubt- 
ful, as to its justice, its necessity and its constitutionality, and 
all the proud honors of Monterey, Bucna Vista and Cerro 
Gordo, wither and perish in a moment — the war plume of 
the soldier trails in the dust, and you who are so justly the 
pride, boast and ornaments of our country, sink down neglect- 
ed, if not scorned, for those noble achievements that so justly 
entitle you to a nation's thanks — a nation's gratitude. 



SPEECH. 

Extracts from the Speech of Gov. Aaron Y. Brovm, one of the 
Democratic Electors for the State at large, atJonesboro', East 
Tennessee, August, 21, 1848. 



I rise, said Gov. Brown, to address you as one of the Dem- 
ocratic Electors of President and Vice President for the State 
at large. If I had consulted my personal ease, or had fondly 
lingered over the endearments of home, had I looked only to 
the many years of my life already devoted to the public service, 
or to the number of times I have already traversed the State, 
crossing her rivers and scaling her mountains, I might well 
have declined a positions, so full of labor and responsibility 
But, fellow-citizens, (said Gov. B.) I did not feel at liberty to 
decline it. Identified with you in so many former struggles, 
your leader and standard bearer in some of them, I did not 
feel willing to retire whilst the enemy was yet in the field, 
flushed with a recent victory, which chance and slander, not 
valor, have achieved for him. Sirs, I ought not to have de- 
clined it, because I came freely amongst you in 1844, and I may 
say, had no small agency in persuading you to bring this ad- 
ministration into power. I exhorted you to commit your po- 
litical destinies to its guidance, and assured you that in my 
opinion it would lead you in the way of prosperity and of honor- 
Now that it is drawing so nearly to its termination, it was pe- 
culiarly proper that I should come back among you, that you 
might look me in the face and justly upbraid me, for any dis- 
asters which it may have brought upon you. You were then 
confidently told that James K. Polk, the democratic nominee, 
was incompetent to fill so exalted a station. That in peace or 



236 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

in war, he would be alike unable to sustain the credit, the honor 
and the glory of the republic. The most insulting and invidi- 
ous comparisons were instituted between him and his competitor. 
In ornothology, the one was the stupid moping bird of night, 
whilst the other was the majestic Eagle, soaring aloft among 
the clouds. Among quadrupeds, one was the great American 
Eclipse, whilst the other was the little Shetland poney of the 
circus. Among mortals, the one was so nearly allied to Divin- 
ity, that if he should chance to fall into a mesmeric slumber, 
you might extract virtue enough from him to make half a dozen 
such men as James K. Polk ! ! Well, time, the great expoun- 
der of human events, has rolled onward and I stand to-day 
present before you, to point you to the proudest refutation of 
all these insulting predictions. 

Look first in the order of time, as I know it is first in your 
affections, to the state and condition of your Federal Union. 
Instead of finding, as you were told you would do, its broken 
and shattered fragments everywhere strewed around you, you 
behold its bright and golden arch with more than adamantine 
strength, still bespanning the continent. Its western terminus 
that used to illuminate only the summit of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, now pours its rich effulgence on all the rivers, and bays 
and harbors of the Pacific. Look again on this bright and 
beautiful picture, less bright and beautiful "by far than its glo- 
rious realization. In the last four years, four new States have 
been added to the confederacy. Florida and Texas, two 
".bright particular stars" shining in theSouth, whilst Iowa and 
Wisconsin, twin sisters of the Lakes, in sylvan loveliness lie 
reposing in the North. A new constellation, for every year of 
this administration, to shine upon it and to adorn it. That 
the act of Congress admitting Florida and the resolution of 
annexation of Texas, did a little antecede the advent of this 
administration, can make no difference, because they were 
but the ripening fruits of that democratic policy, which through- 
out its career, has so much distinguished it. 

Look now to his alleged incompetency to manage the civil 
affairs of the nation. History — impartial history — with its 
iron pen, has recorded a succession of able messages to Con- 
gress, which will compare favorably with those of his most 



OX THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 237 

distinguished predecessors. It has recorded, too, a brilliant 
series of contested measures, which can find no parallel in 
any equal period of the republic. So successfully have these 
measures gone into operation, that they have extorted from the 
whig party the reluctant admission, that they cannot and dare 
not run a Presidential candidate, who will publicly avow his 
opposition to one of them. In the Deloney letter, the question 
is expressly asked, " Gen. Taylor, are you in favor of a United 
States Bank?" No, says the General, I am not prepared 
to say that I am. In the same letter, " General Taylor, are 
you opposed to the democratic revenue tariff of 1846 ?" No, 
says the General, I am not prepared to say that I am. Again, 
"Gen. Taylor, are you opposed to the independent or sub- 
treasury, which the democrats have lately established and 
against which the whigs have warred with such undying oppo- 
sition ?" No, says Gen. Taylor, I am not prepared to say that 
I am opposed to that either. These are substantially the 
questions and answers of that celebrated letter, and as long as 
they shall live, they will constitute the loftiest eulogium on 
the civil measures of James K. Polk's administration. 

I come now to his alleged incompetency in the event of a 
foreign war. You will remember how it was more than inti- 
mated, that in that event, he would not have the nerve to stand 
up to such a crisis. Well, the war did come. I speak not 
yet of why and how it came. But it did come, and what was 
said then ? Why, the counter cry was instantly raised that he 
had too much nerve! so much that he even provoked the war — 
that he even run out to meet it, by ordering the march of the 
army to the Rio Grande. When afterwards in the further pro- 
gress of the war, your triumphant Eagles had perched on all 
the domes of her capitol, what was said then? Why, this 
democratic President of ours is altogether too bloody minded. 
He is a very Tamerlane or Ghensikhan and don't want to make 
a treaty, until he can swallow up the whole national sover- 
eignty of Mexico ! And yet this bloody accusation had scarcely 
fallen from the lips of the Senator who pronounced it, before 
the President sent in a treaty eminently distinguished for its 
liberality and its forbearance. 

With the ratification of that treaty, the bright and beautiful 



238 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

goddess of peace again returns to our country. She comes, 

"Like a beautiful cloud to its Haven of rest. 

On the white wings of peace floating up from the West." 

She comes bearing in her hands all that was ever demanded ; 
" indemnity for the past and security for the future." She pro- 
claims too, to the everlasting honor of this administration and 
of the Christian age in which we live, that in all this war, not a 
gun has been fired, not a city has been taken, not a province 
has been invaded, without her having first tendered to our 
deluded enemy the Olive Branch of Peace. 

With her also has returned that gallant army, that has borne 
your standard so high and so proudly on every battle field of 
Mexico. They come — having never lost a battle, never sus- 
tained a defeat. They come, having covered themselves, their 
kindred, their country, and this administration, with undying 
honors. They come, having filled America with joy and the 
world with admiration. The world ! All the civilized nations 
of it, gazing on the wonderful prowess of our arms and the 
sublime operations of our republican system under this and 
preceding democratic administrations, are even now kindling 
up the beacon fires of liberty, to light their way " to the model 
republic of America." France, springing up like a young giant, 
i3 already in the path, whilst the other nations of the continent 
are preparing to follow. England, too, hoary and veteran as 
she is in the ways of oppression, begins to feel the mighty im- 
pulse ; whilst Ireland — down-trodden and oppressed Ireland — 
slowly lifts herself up and looks mournfully around her for re- 
lief. But alas ! I fear there is no relief for Ireland ! I fear 
that her own immortal poet has too well described her con- 
dition : 

" Alas, for his country ! her pride has gone by, 

And that spirit is broken that never would bend ; 
O'er her ruin in secret her children must sigh, 

For 'tis treason to love her, and death to defend. 
Unpriz'd are her sons, till they have learned to betray, 

Undistinguished they live, if they shame not their sires ; 
And the torch that would light them through liberty's way, 

Must be caught from the pile where their country expires." 

I know, gentlemen, that you will excuse this rapid review of 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 230 

the past four years, as indispensable to the contemplation of 
the four which are to follow. It exhibits the glorious triumphs 
of democratic principles and measures, and brings us directly 
to the question, whether there should be any change or aban- 
donment of them in the pending presidential election. Oppo- 
sition to these principles and measures laid the foundation of 
the present whig party. That opposition has been for sixteen 
years bold, fierce and unrelenting. Its author, and I may now 
say its finisher, has been ever in the field, urging his followers 
to victory or death. But in every election they have had some 
well known and well understood platform on which to stand. 
But how stands the case in the present election? Has either 
of the great political parties of this country, so far forgotton 
what was due to its own honor or to the people of the United 
States, as to conceal their opinions and utterly refuse to dis- 
close them ? Let impartial and undeniable facts answer the 
terrible question. Go with me first to the records of the con- 
vention of the democratic party at Baltimore. Read over the 
long series of resolutions, fully covering every great doctrine, 
and principle, and measure of our party. Turn next to the 
letters of acceptance of our nominees, Gens. Cass and Butler, 
and see how fully and completely our creed is endorsed. Every 
democratic heart must swell with a just pride, that all is so 
plain, and public, and patriotic. 

Now turn to the records of the Philadelphia whig convention. 
Read over its pages — every line of them — and you will not find 
one word about principles, or doctrines, or measures — not 
a word against any of the democratic measures ; not a 
word for or against a bank, for a protective tariff, for distribu- 
tion, against the sub-treasury, against the war, against the ac- 
quisition of territory to pay the expenses of the war — nothing 
for or against that firebrand of hell, the Wilmot Proviso ! It 
was no accidental omission in that convention, for more than 
one proposition was made to make known, in some way or 
other, the principles of their party as involved in this election, 
but they were ruled to be either out of order, or lost in the scuffle 
and clamor for availability. Nor was it left to the response of 
General Taylor, their nominee, to elucidate their party senti- 



240 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

ments on all these subjects ; for when you read over his letter of 
acceptance, you are forced to exclaim, 

" Silence, how dead ! and darkness, how profound !" 

Remember, gentlemen, we are searching for the principles 
of the whig party, involved in this election. We have searched 
for them in the high places of the party, but have searched in 
vain. Let no man point us now, as formerly, to the votes and 
speeches of Mr. Clay as the true exponents of whig principles. 
Time was when he was the living and true oracle. Time was 
when he was regarded and called the very embodiment of whig- 
gery itself. But, alas ! that " embodiment" is now dead, politi- 
cally dead — slain, not by his enemies, but murdered outright 
by those whom he had nourished into life and protected be- 
neath the shadow of his own great name. Like Caesar, he was 
slain in the capitol, by his own friends. He expired, too, like 
him, not at the foot of Pompey's statue, but at the base of that 
great monument of whig principles which he himself had reared. 
Who, of all " the conspirators," dare, now in their extremity, to 
go down to the lone resting place of the departed, to pluck up 
from his tomb the principles and doctrines with which to em- 
blazon the blank and naked standard which they have committed 
to the hands of General Taylor ? Fancy to yourself some en- 
vious Casca, or some well beloved Brutus, if you please, start- 
ing on such a pilgrimage. He arrives — th£ hour is midnight. 
Standing beneath the gloomy arches of the sepulchre, he calls 
aloud on " the Sage of Ashland !" The very grave would burst 
open on such a call, and a form like that of Samuel of old, 
slowly rising to his view, would cry, " Aback ! aback ! I hear 
the voice of one who murdered the whig party when they mur- 
dered me." 

Sir, said Gov. B., (turning slowly to Gov. Jones,) say not that 
it is a strange spectacle to see me shedding tears over the 
grave of Henry Clay — I, who twenty years ago, introduced 
resolutions into the Legislature of Tennessee, condemning his 
imputed bargain, intrigue and corruption in the election of Mr. 
Adams. No, sir, I was his public enemy — struck at him as such, 
in open day. He expected it from all good Jackson men, and 
struck back giant blows in return. But I never struck at 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 241 

him as a false friend in disguise ; Judas like, I never " betrayed 
him with a hiss" — I never opened to him the arms of pretended 
friendship, whilst I drove the keen stiletto to his heart! No, 
sir, I shed no tears over the grave of this fallen Csesar. I only 
point his old and sincere friends to 

" the deep damnation of his taking off." 

The old principles of the party having expired with Mr. Clay, 
and his party having in fact killed him off on account of his 
principles, it remains only to be seen what new ones have 
been substituted in their place and stand involved in the pres- 
ent election. Before I proceed with this distinct proposition, I 
mean to call my competitor to the stand, to prove by him that 
the nomination of General Taylor was a total and final aban- 
donment of all the old principles of the whig party. He has 
denied it to-day, and on former days, and I will now prove it upon 
him by the words which have fallen from his own lips. On 
the 8th of April last, standing at the head and in the presence 
of his party, he warned his friends " of the fearful precipice on 
which they rushed," in the nomination of General Taylor : "An 
abyss," said he, " which if not avoided I fear is destined to 
swallow up our brightest hopes and most cherished principles." 
Well, Governor, they would not avoid Taylor*s nomination, and 
so, sure enough, away went "your most cherished principles." 
Again : now turn to the 13th page of that speech, where you 
ask, after enumerating your principles," how stands General 
Taylor on these important subjects ? Who can answer ? Who 
shall speak ? The deep, awful silence of the grave is not more 
profound. And yet we are urged to select him as the cham- 
pion of our principles, the safe depository of our faith, the 
great expounder of our creed." Gov. Jones, you were then 
horrified at the very idea of doing such a thing ! You proceed, 
" are gentlemen ready thus to abandon their principles, for I 
can regard it as nothing less than an abandonment." Gov. 
Jones (said Gov. B.) mark the fullness and power of this lan- 
guage, " nothing less than an abandonment;" not of one, two 
or three, but of all the cherished principles of your parly, in. 
that or some other speech, you have declared that a party 

without principles is like a body without a soul; and putting 

17 



242 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

together your arguments and admissions on former occasions, 
you leave the old Clay whig party truly " in a lost and ruined 
condition." But, sir, said Gov. Brown, no man should be sur- 
prised at such a result, who looks at the astounding declaration 
on the 14th page of your speech. There you proclaim that, 
although you will not " willingly make the surrender of your 
principles," yet you will obey the decision of the great whig 
convention, " choosing rather to do what my judgment con- 
demns, standing and acting with my friends, rather than by 
standing out, giving aid and comfort to the enemy." Sir, said 
Gov. B., I am amazed at such sentiments, and I enter my eter- 
nal protestation against them. "I will not," says he, " willingly 
make a surrender of my principles." No, sir, a man must die 
a martyr to his principles, although he may often yield up his 
opinions and notions of expediency and policy to the judgment 
of his party friends ; but if he would be true to God, to truth 
and virtue, he must surrender his principles to no power upon 
earth ! But Gov. Jones gives his reason for this sentiment, 
so shocking to all the high elements of morality ; " choosing 
rather to do that which my judgment condemns," &c. Now 
what is a man's judgment? what his reason? It is that high 
and noble faculty which God has planted in the mind of man 
to mark his superiority over the brute creation, and he that 
rudely tears the bright jewel from his brow, is no safe counsellor 
and guide to this large Christian assembly. 

'tis a base 



Abandonment of reason to resign 
Our right of thought. 

But I mean to fortify my position, that the old whig principles 
are abandoned, and are not involved in this election, by a wit- 
ness greater than Gov. Jones himself. Gen. Taylor declares, 
in his answer to the Deloney letter, in relation to a bank and 
the tariff, that he was not prepared to give his opinions, and 
could only do so after duly investigating them, which he de- 
clared he had not the time then to do, all his time being taken 
up in his official duties. Now how can questions be at issue, 
on which a candidate has not yet formed his opinion ? Again : 
on the 15th February 1848, Gen. Taylor writes a letter to a 
gentleman at Cincinnati as follows : " I have to inform you 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 343 

that I have laid it down as a principle not to give my opinions 
upon or prejudge in any way the various questions of policy 
now at issue between the political parties of the conntryj 
nor to promise what I would or would not do, were I elected to 
the Presidency of the United States, and that in the cases pre- 
sented in your letter, I see no necessity for departing from 
that principle." 

Now, I put it to all honorable men, to all right thinking men, 
whether a silent, undisclosive candidate like this puts any thing 
whatsoever in issue — new or old, good or bad, right or wrong. 
His only principle is to declare no principle. Sir, it was this 
letter, and others like it, that made you declare in your Nash- 
ville speech that no man can command the confidence and suf- 
frage of the whig party who refuses to speak out plainly, fully 
aiid freely. Here we see that Gen. Taylor refuses to speak 
out at all — on any subject — to any body. It was this letter, and 
others like it — it was your speech at Nashville, condemning 
his dogged and obstinate concealment of his principles, that 
turned hundreds of your party and of my party away from 
him, and keep them from him to this hour, in despite of all 
your back-sliding and tame surrender of your reason and your 
judgment to the commands of party. Sir, said Gov. B. to 
Gov. Jones, you sometimes charge me with having been once 
in favor of Gen. Taylor. I was never for him but on the ex- 
press condition that he should make a full and frank exposition 
of his principles, and that these, when made, should be found 
satisfactory to the great mass of the American people — then, 
and not till then, was I willing to support him on national 
grounds; but never — never, as a mere party candidate, to be 
swallowed down, as he subsequently was, by a fraudulent de- 
vice, and then vomited up amidst the party orgies of the Phil- 
adelphia convention. Sir, these things released me, and re- 
leased all other democrats, from all and every real or supposed 
obligation to vote for Gen. Taylor. If any farther reason 
were wanting to justify our surrendering all ideas of his sup- 
port, let it be found in the bold and insulting declaration of my 
competitor in his speech at Philadelphia, that " he cared not 
whether Zachary Taylor was a whig or not — or what he was ; 
provided he was against locofocoism, he was with him." Let 



244 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

him be native American — anti-mason — abolitionist — saint o 
devil — any thing or nothing, so he is opposed to the democra 
cy ! ! To that democracy which, in another part of the sam< 
speech, notwithstanding all his gentle cooing to them noic, hi 
denominates " that lying, double-dealing, spurious democracy 
modern locofocoism, [which he declared] he utterly abhorre* 
and repudiated." What democrat in all this broad land coul< 
sit down to a Taylor entertainment with an insulting in vita 
tion like this ? 

But Gov. Jones endeavors to escape from all these uncom 
fortable dilemmas, by saying that, since the 8th of April lasl 
General Taylor has come out with a satisfactory declaration o 
whig principles, and therefore it is that he now supports him 
That if he had not, he would not advocate his election. I than! 
the gentleman, said Gov. B., for the admission, and will holi 
him to it with an iron grasp. I will enumerate the whig prin 
ciples, known and admitted to be such, and then demand t 
know of Gov. Jones which one of them has Gen. Taylor ex 
pressed his opinion upon since the 8th of April to this ver; 
hour. Note them, Gov. Jones, and tell me one. 1st, the ban] 
— 2d, the tariff — 3d, internal improvements. Has he expresse< 
his opinions for or against any one of these ? No, not one 
In his Allison letter he speaks of how he would apply th 
veto power to them, but his opinions on them, for or against, h 
does not pretend to intimate — not at all, not at all. 4th, op 
position to the war as unjust and unconstitutional. This is an 
other whig doctrine. Does Gen. Taylor give his opinions oi 
this point in his Allison or any other letter up to this day 
No, he does not. He speaks of the evils of war generally 
and deprecates the subjugation of other nations by " conquest/ 
but gives no opinion as to the Mexican war in particular. 5th 
unwillingness to take from Mexico territorial indemnity agains 
the expenses of the war, is another whig doctrine on whicl 
Gen. Taylor is profoundly silentinthe Allison letter. Remem 
ber, sir, 1 am now through the enumeration of whig principle; 
and measures, and I yet hold you in an iron grasp, and demam 
to know on what one has Gen Taylor developed his opinion: 
since your Nashville speech. You tell me that he has corn* 
out at least for the whig doctrine of the veto. No such thing 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 245 

8 ir — to use your own favorite mode of expression, " not a bit 
of it." Look to the whig speeches in Congress after Tyler's 
vetoes — look to your own speech at Nashville, where the whig 
doctrine is, a total abolition of the veto power. Listen to your 
own words : " Who does not remember the lofty denunciations 
against not only the improper exercise of this power, but 
against its very existence? Have we not pointed out the hor- 
rors of this one manpower? this spirit of monarchy ? and 
have we not solemnly pledged ourselves to the country — have 
we not invoked the genius of liberty to attest our sincerity, 
that, when in power, we would use the proper means to rid the 
constitution of this incubus and strike from the hands of the 
people this last fetter?" Now, hear what Gen. Taylor says 
about this " abolition and annihilation" of the veto power. 
In his Allison letter : " The veto power. The power given by 
the constitution to the Executive to interpose his veto is a high 
conservative power," &c. There, now, you see that so far 
from coming out for your whig anti-veto power, he knocks it 
right on the head, and leaves you with the poor excuse of hav- 
ing gone for Taylor only because he went against you and one 
of your favorite doctrines. So I hold j'ou in that iron grasp 
yet. You seek to escape by saying that he lays down a good 
whig rule for the exercise of the veto power under the consti- 
tution. And is this all — all the platform on which you and 
your party, and your candidate, have to stand in this great 
election ? With no one opinion expressed, on any one subject 
in the world, except the application of the veto power in almost 
the very words of nearly every President that ever went before 
him. What are they ? " But in my opinion, should never be 
exercised except in cases of clear violation of the constitution 
or manifest haste and want of consideration of Congress." 

Sir, if the constitution be violated by an act of Congress, 
who would thank Gen. Taylor to veto it ? He takes an oath 
to support the constitution, and if Congress send him a bill 
which he cannot sign consistently with that instrument, the 
scorn of the world and the hottest fires of perdition await him 
if he dare to put his signature to it. So there is no platform in 
that. But he adds the other clause you say, that he will not 
veto it unless it be in cases of " manifest haste and want of 



24G CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

consideration of Congress." Who would ? Why, every Pres- 
ident who ever vetoed a law not on constitutional grounds, put 
it on the footing expressly that Congress had not duly considered 
the subject. No President ever presumed a wilful and deliber- 
ate purpose in Congress to do wrong, and none ever will. As 
it relates to the balance of the Allison letter, where Gen. Tay- 
lor declares that " on the subject of the currency, the tariff, and 
internal improvements by Congress, the will of the people as 
expressed by Congress, ought to be respected and carried out 
by the Executive." If the previous rule in relation to the appli- 
cation of the veto power is to be applied to this, it means noth- 
ing — absolutely nothing. But if it is not, then it means Avhat 
Gen. Taylor can never stand up to-r-what his oath and the 
constitution would never allow him to stand up to. But I need 
not argue this, because Gov. Jones every day admits that on 
the currency, the tariff, and internal improvements, if Congress 
violated the constitution, or legislated " without due consider- 
ation," Gen. Taylor would have to veto on these as on all other 
subjects. This admission sweeps away the whole Allison let- 
ter, and the fancied platform which it reared tumbles to the 
ground, and I hold you yet, sir, in the iron grasp of your admis- 
sion, not to support Gen. Taylor if he has not come out fully 
and freely with his principles. But, sir, I feel that it is useless 
to press you further on this admission, for I am satisfied in my 
mind that it is no disclosures of Gen. Taylor that have worked 
out your conversion to him — but that surrender of reason, that 
throwing away of your better judgment, that unwilling abandon- 
ment of principles at the high commands of yonr party, which 
you avow in your Nashville speech. 

But before I leave this Allison letter, allow me to ask why 
this fresh and furious onslaught on the veto power of the Consti- 
tution? It has been there ever since the republic was founded. 
It was put there unanimously by the convention who framed 
the Constitution — by Washington, and Madison, and Franklin, 
and a long list of the best men that God in his mercy ever sent 
to this earth — under it the republic has grown from thirteen to 
thirty States, and from three or four to more than twenty millions 
of inhabitants. In commerce and navigation; in agriculture 
and the mechanical arts and sciences ; in all the elements of 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 247 

national greatness, both in peace and in war, she stands the 
wonder of the age and of the world. Is it possible, that this 
canker worm has been working at the bud and eating out the 
vital principles of our government, unfelt and unperceived du- 
ring all this while? Well, look to its mighty ravages. Out 
of more than seven thousand laws, twenty-five only have been 
vetoed — one out of about two hundred and eighty ; twice by 
George Washington ; six times by Mr. Madison ; once by Mr. 
Monroe; eight or nine times in the eight }'ears of Gen. Jack- 
son ; four times by Mr. Tyler, and three times by James K. 
Polk. That is to say, in twenty-five out of seven thousand 
laws, the different Presidents of the United States have called 
on Congress to re-considcr laws which they had passed and 
sent to him for approval — twenty-five times out of seven thou 
sand ! If any of these laws were, on re-consideration, thought 
to be decidedly good ones, Congress could have passed them 
over the head of the President and in spite of his veto, and no 
mischief could have come to the Republic. 

My competitor claims Alexander Hamilton as the author of 
the veto as it stands in the Constitution. He must have read 
the history of the convention to a poor purpose to have come 
to that conclusion. Hamilton proposed and advocated an 
absolute veto. Mr. Madison or Mr. Edmund Randolph proposed 
a qualified or limited one and it was adopted, Hamilton's 
having been rejected by the convention. And at what moment 
is it proposed to obliterate this veto power, or to render it 
nugatory and vain by non-user and neglect ? In former years 
the power of numbers was with the South, and she rested in 
assurance and confidence beneath the shadow of that power, 
but now " the sceptre has departed from Judah," and an in- 
exorable majority of more than forty votes is daily cast against 
you from the North — from the North, where the fires of fanati- 
cism are now burning and threatening every year to consume 
you and your institutions together. It is at such a moment as 
this that you are called upon to heave overboard your last an- 
chor, or to throw away the last shield of your protection and 
safety. 

But I must pass away, said Gov. Brown, for want of time, 
from a further examination of this subject, in order to answer 



243 



CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 



some of the objections taken by Gov. Jones to the democratic 
nominee, Gen. Cass, one of the purest patriots and wisest 
statesmen this country has ever produced. 

Gov. Brown then reviewed and most triumphantly answered 
the charge that Gen. Cass was a federalist in 1798, or at any 
other time. He showed by extracts from one of Gov. Jones' 
northern speeches, that he had declared, that Gen. Cass had 
been a democrat all the days of his life. He denied that Gov. 
Jones had brought forward one particle of proof to show that 
Gen. Cass voted for or approved the vagrant law of Michigan — 
that it had as well be said that the Speakers of the two houses 
of the Legislature, or of Congress, voted for all the bills they 
signed, or that the foreman of the grand jury must have voted 
for every bill of presentment or indictment which he signs and 
presents to the court. He adverted to the charge that Gen. 
Cass had received large sums of extra allowances for his pub- 
lic services, but said that Gov. Jones admitted that he had not 
received one dollar which the laws of the land did not authorize 
to be paid to him. This he said settled that charge forever. 
If the law allowed and authorized the payment there was an 
end of the matter. He showed that the statements of Mr. 
Wise before the committee prejudicial to Gen. Cass, were all 
founded on the hearsay and information of others, and not on 
any knowledge of Mr. Wise himself. He adverted to certain 
extracts from a speech of Mr. Yancy, of Alabama, pronounc- 
ing Gen. Cass to be a time-serving politician and an enemy to 
the South; and said, Mr. Yancy was a disappointed member of 
the Baltimore Convention, who had returned home, and whatever 
he was saying, was more than counterbalanced by the high testi- 
mony of respect for the public character and private virtues of 
Gen. Cass, which had been borne by such whigs as Abbott Law- 
rence, S. S. Prentiss and Bailie Peyton. Gov. Brown after 
pronouncing the highest eulogium on Gen. Cass and Gen. 
Butler in peace and in war, in the Cabinet and the field, said 
he must pass on to a more grave objection taken by Gov. 
Jones to the election of Gen. Cass. 

That objection was, that the election of Lewis Cass to the 
Presidency of the United States would be an endorsement of 
the war policy of this administration — " a policy of invasion — 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 



249 



of aggression — of territorial aggrandizement which, if per- 
sisted in, must lead to the destruction of our government." 
And pray, sir, have you not already endorsed that policy, by 
the selection of your own candidate ? He has been the very 
head and front of that war. He has gathered all his laurels 
in it. Without it he had been nothing— with it he has be- 
come "your proud and boasted candidate. He advised every 
step in it, He advised the march to the banks of the Rio 
Grande, and afterward that the war should be carried 
over the Rio Grande into the very heart and vitals of 
the Republic. He entered so deeply and cordially into it, 
that in his letter to Gen. Gaines, he advised the capture and 
retention of six or seven of her finest provinces ; and yet, 
sir, after all, you go down into the blood and carnage of 
this unjust and damnable war and pluck up your candi- 
date for the Presidency. Posterity will be amazed at the 
inconsistency and absurdity of the act. But I meet the charge 
of Gov. Jones with a positive and unequivocal denial. The 
war policy of this administration has not been aggressive — has 
not been for territorial aggrandizement, and I challenge him at 
once to the proof. Sirs, he offers you none, and will offer 
you none. He prefers charges against his own govern- 
ment which, if true, ought to sink it to the lowest depths 
of infamy and dishonor— charges that present this noble 
Republic as standing out amongst the other nations of 
the earth, as a proud despot, bloated with the plunder 
and reeking with the blood of a weak, innocent and help- 
less people ; and yet stops not and cares not to bring for- 
ward one fact, or to adduce one argument, to support the foul 
impeachment. Well, if he will not prove it, I will disprove it. 
Since this war has been ended and our armies withdrawn, 
Mexico, by her commissioners who negotiated the treaty, has 
acknowledged that she did not own one acre of territory on 
this side the Rio del Norte ; that she had not owned one acre 
of it since the battle of San Jacinto ; that in every attempt she 
had made to regain it, she had been whipped oil" from it, " leav- 
ing the country between the Rio Grande and the Nueces abso- 
lutely free. 1 ' Absolutely free ! This is the free and voluntary 
confession of one of the parties to the controversy, and is the 



~50 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTIIEIl SPEECHES, 

very highest and best authority. Reverdy Johnson, one of 
your ablest Senators, last winter, after deep and profound in- 
vestigation, stated the same facts in almost the same words, 
and expressly declared, " that from the commencement of the 
revolution of 1834 to the independence declared by Texas in 
1830 — from that period to the admission of Texas into the 
Union in 1845, and from '45 to the present hour, no Mexican 
document can be found, military or civil — no Mexican officer, 
civil or military, has ever been known maintaining that the terri- 
tory lying between the Nueces and the Rio Grande belonged to 
Mexico, by any other title than that which she maintained to 
the whole territory between the Sabine and the Rio Grande." 
I pause and stand on these two recent authorities, and demand 
of Gov. Jones to overturn them or take back the bold and dis- 
gracing charges made against his own government. Reverdy 
Johnson, one of the ablest whigs in Congress, tells you you are 
wrong. Mexico herself, the only party interested against us, 
tells you you are wrong, and your heart ought to leap with joy 
from the Mexican to the American side of the question. 

If then the lower Rio Grande, to which only the army was 
sent, were the true boundary between the United States (after 
annexation) and Mexico, every doubt and shadow of doubt, 
about the justice, the constitutionality and necessity of the 
Mexican war vanishes at once. The war policy of the Presi- 
dent instantly becomes one of self-defence, protecting from in- 
vasion every portion of our wide-spreading Republic. Yes, 
sirs, after all you have heard, the President, has only acted on 
the principles of self-defence. The Mexican army, in the night 
time, crossed the true boundary, with the view of re-conquering 
the whole of Texas, assailed our army and murdered our people 
on our own soil, as is now admitted by Mexico herself. But 
Gov. Jones tells us, however all this may be, that I told you 
in 1844 that there would be no war, and therefore I was a 
false prophet on the subject. Well, sir, who falsified my pro- 
phecy ? Not Mexico — but you — your party — you as good 
as sent word to her that she had given up Texas too easily — 
that she had a good title to it, and that if she would assert it, 
that Heaven would take sides with her, and that it would be 
downright robbery for the United States to take it from her. 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 



251 



So encouraged she did go to war for it, and if I and my party- 
were bad prophets, you and your party were worse patriots. 
But I charge, (said Gov. Brown,) not only that the immediate 
origin of this war (annexation being the remote one) is to be 
attributed to the course and conduct of your party, but that 
its procrastination, with all the consequent loss of life and 
treasure, lies at your door. 

Your whig speeches were thrown broadcast throughout Mex- 
ico ; our army marching from hacienda to hacienda every where 
met with them. Your whig leaders were enrolled as honorary 
members upon the pages of Mexican societies, and their pub- 
lic journals proclaimed that no treaty should be made until 
their friends should succeed in turning James K. Polk out and 
turning themselves into power — then, and not till then, they 
said, should a treaty be made and peace restored to the two 
countries. Yes, sir, and you speak of the blood that has been 
shed and the precious lives that have been lost in this war. 
Walkabout the graveyards of the city of Mexico; pass by 
those on the great National road from Vera Cruz ; pause at 
that great one at New Orleans, and if the brave and gallant 
dead could rise from their resting places, with uplifted hands, 
they would exclaim, " We owe our death to the conduct of 
our own countrymen." The balls that sent many of these brave 
defenders of their country to their long homes were wrapped 
up in the speeches of distinguished leaders of the whig party. 
Sir, there is no disguising, no excusing, no palliating great and 
distressing facts likes these, and it is time for patriots of every 
age and name and party to enter a solemn protest against 
such conduct. The leaders and managers of the whig party 
have too long and two often exhibited a fatal proclivity in 
every difficulty with a foreign nation to take sides against their 
own government — I say against their own government ; I will 
not sa} r against their own country. 

In our difficulties with France to compel her to pay up in- 
demnities, which she had solemnly bound herself by treaty to 
do, your party took sides against their oion government. When 
the Indians had murdered men, women, and children on our 
southern border, and Gen. Jackson recommended war for their 
protection, your party, with a few honorable exceptions, took 



252 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

•ides against their own government. When, in that war, Gen. 
raylor, recommended the use of bloodhounds to hunt up the 
Indians in their lairs, you cried " down with him and Mr. Van 
3uren, for this wanton, wicked and unchristian warfare ;" but 
low this wiry bloodhound adviser is lauded to the skies as " the 
greatest and the best." When we were on the verge of war 
vith Great Britain for Oregon, you took sides with England on 
he question of title, and forced your own government to a 
'.ompromise, which you now say it was base and cowardly in 
.\>lk to have made. When it was proposed to strengthen and 
enlarge our own country by the free and voluntary annexation 
)f Texas, you took sides against your own government, and 
;ontended that it would be downright robbery on Mexico, thereby 
is good as sending word to Mexico to stand out for it and 
ileaven would sustain her in the claim. And when war did 
some, and our country was actually invaded and our people 
nurdered on our own soil, they took sides against their own 
government, and, what is still worse, they continue yet so to 
ake sides, against all the light and evidence which truth and 
listory, with all their power and effulgence, can shed upon the 
subject. History has recorded these high, portentous facts, and 
t is with a heart full of sorrow and indignation that I recite 
ts burning pages. 

Gov. Jones prefers another charge against Gen. Cass, to 
vhich I wish now briefly to reply. He warns you against him 
is a northern man, whom you cannot trust on the great ques- 
ions growing out of our peculiar southern institution. Sir, I 
Challenge proudly a comparison of candidates in this respect, 
ifou call on yours for his opinions on the Wilmot Proviso. 
:Ic shakes his head in awful and ominous silence. When 
sailed on to the north, in one of your speeches, to say how 
jen. Taylor is on that great question, you frankly admit that 
:ou do not know. Others, with better opportunities, declare 
hat he is against any further extension of slavery, and that he 
vould not veto the Wilmot Proviso. Caleb B. Smith, mem- 
)cr of Congress, says he is with the north on that subject ; Mr. 
Swing, of Ohio, says he is with the north ; King and Ashman, 
nembers of Congress from Massachusetts, say so ; Coalter, 
rom New Hampshire, and Trueman Smith, from Connecticut, 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 253 

say so ; and hundreds of others assert it with a boldness and 
confidence which seems to be founded on actual knowledge. 
Now, sir, if Gen. Taylor were right on that subject, would he 
siiaire his head at you ; would he put his finger on his lips ; 
would he leave his friend Gov. Jones to grope his way here 
through the State of Tennessee, unable to say how his candi- 
date is on the great question of the age — a question on which 
the continuance and permanence of this Union may depend ? 
When I look upon you, sir, every day, panting and laboring 
under this load, I cannot but think of St. Paul when he stood 
on Mars' Hill and exclaimed, " Ye men of Athens ! I perceive 
that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by 
and beheld your devotions , I found an altar with this inscrip- 
tion : ' To the Unknown God.' " Yes, sir, I see your inscrip- 
tions every day to the unknown god whom you ignorantly 
worship. You pray to him, but he will not answer you; you 
call upon him, but he will not unveil himself to you, on no one 
subject, in no one particular, in no form, nor shape, nor man- 
ner. He will not thunder to you from the mountain, nor blaze 
before you in a burning bush — all is doubt, and mystery, and 
uncertainty. 

But, sir, how is it on the other side? Gen. Cass leaving 
the strong side comes over to the weak one ; giving up early 
and hasty impressions, he follows the deep and constitutional 
convictions of his mind, and boldly declares that the south is 
right on this great question, and that he will rise or fall with 
her upon it. What is that the south is needing in this trying 
and critical moment ? Not friends in the south, for if the whole 
south stood as one man, (Gen. Taylor and all,) still she would 
have a majority of forty against her. She, therefore, needs 
friends in the north — some strong man, with strong friends, 
who will stand by her. Such a man is Lewis Cass, and the 
friends, those who stand by him in this election. With him and 
them as her allies, the dark clouds that now hang over her 
may be dispelled, and our country start afresh in a new career 
of glory and of greatness. 

But with what sort of grace, said Gov. Brown, can our ad- 
versaries object to the northern residence of Gen. Cass ? Look 
to your own ticket for Vice President. Compare it with ours— 



254 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

Butler and Fillmore ; both in Congress for years together. 
Butler true as steel to the south on every occasion ; Fillmore 
recording, on many occasions, the most fatal votes to her safety 
and her interest. I do not hesitate this day to declare that 
neither Adams, nor Slade, nor Giddings, have ever recorded 
stronger votes against you. Out of a multitude, I will give 
you one that stamps him indelibly as one of your worst and 
greatest enemies. You may vote lor him if you choose, but 
you shall not do so without knowing that you place in your 
Senate Chamber a man that may have to give the casting vote 
on your nearest and dearest interests, and who would as surely 
give it against you as you place him in the office. 

In 1838, Mr. Fillmore, with Mr. Adams and others, voted 
against the following resolution : " Congress, in the exercise 
of its acknowledged powers, has no right to discriminate be- 
tween the institutions of one portion of the States and another, 
with the view of abolishing the one and promoting the other." 
Here is a vote, (among many others,) about which there can 
be no mistake. He expressly declares, that Congress has the 
right to discriminate against your slave property, and that too, 
with the view of abolishing it. It is the very essence or marrow 
of abolition itself. No sophistry can explain it away — no ar- 
gument can justify or defend it. It stands out in bold and 
monstrous relief; it looks every man of the south right in the 
face, and bids him with a defiance to vote for Millard Fillmore 
at his peril ! And peril it you may, but you shall not have it 
to say that I did not warn you against the murderous deed. 
When this man shall have been elected ; when he shall have 
given the casting vote against you in the Senate ; when the 
news shall fall upon you like the sound of a fire-bell at night ; 
when the fires of fanaticism and of insurrection shall have 
united their hellish blaze ; when your hearthstones shall be 
blackened, and your altars stained with the blood of your 
own household, say not that Aaron V. Brown was an unfaith- 
ful sentinel on the watchtouers of liberty. 

But I am admonished that my allotted time has nearly ex- 
pired. I can only appeal to you to pause, and to pause long, 
before you call a mere military man — with no experience, with 
no opinions yet formed or matured, or if matured, who has not 



OX THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 255 

and will not make a disclosure of them — to the Presidency of 
this great republic. There can be no necessity for so rash and, 
until now, so unprecedented an attempt. For more than twenty 
years our government, with but a single exception, has been 
in democratic hands, and has advanced in all the elements of 
national greatness with the most astonishing rapidity. There 
can be no necessity to turn out the old and long tried demo- 
cratic pilots who have steered the great vessel of State. The 
new ones proposed are untried and unpractised — they never 
looked on her compass nor touched her helm in all their lives. 
Four years ago, when the good old ship sailed out, you were 
confidently told that she never would return — that she would be 
driven upon the rocks, and shoals, and quicksands, and finally be 

" In the deep bosom of the ocean buried." 

But, thank God ! yonder she comes, with all her sails set, riding 
gallantly into port ! All I ask of you before you make this 
great change is, to go down with me and examine the state and 
condition of the good old vessel of State. Look at her capa- 
cious and noble hull — her towering masts, peering upward 
toward the clouds — her everlasting timbers, bidding defiance 
to the waves and the tempest. Walk about her mighty bul- 
warks — turn toward her mast-head, and gaze upon the stars 
and stripes that have carried your name, your fame, your power, 
over all the habitable globe — four more stars than you ever saw 
shine there before. But all these relate to the outside, the mere 
exterior of the noble vessel : what of her cargo ? It is precious 
and priceless. Our commerce ? Under the influence of re- 
venue duties only, it is larger than it ever was before. Our 
agriculture? It has fed half the starving nations of Europe. 
Our navigation ? Boundless as the oceans of the earth. Our 
mechanical arts and sciences ? They have filled the world with 
astonishment. But tell us — tell us, what of the Union, the ark 
of our political salvation? Safely brought home to you, 
brighter and stronger than ever. What of the constitution ? 
Brought back, too, sound and unbroken. Our civil and reli- 
gious liberties, what of them ? Here they are, pure and invio- 
late as when they were first baptised in the blood of the revo- 
lution. What patriotic voice is not ready to exclaim, then all 
is well ! all is well ! 



256 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

slave bill, bidding defiance to its marshals, imprisoning the 
master who claimed his slave, or closing the scene, as at Chris- 
tiana, in murder and blood. 

It was at a period when the abolitionists had achieved so 
many triumphs, and were flushed with so many victories, that 
the whig and democratic parties assembled at Baltimore. 
The selection of candidates was a matter of no peculiar in- 
terest to either, so far as it related to the old issues which had 
originally divided them. They were considered either as ob- 
solete, or were permitted to slumber beneath the intense and 
all-absorbing question of slavery. Not a whig, nor a demo- 
cratic delegate was known of, who left the South, but with the 
great master-passion of his soul, not to nominate any candi- 
date who was not true to the rights of the South — true to the 
Constitution, and true to the fugitive slave bill founded on the 
Constitution. The democratic party knew no better mode of 
ascertaining the sentiments of their candidates than to address 
letters to them, asking for a full public declaration of their 
views. They all declared that they would veto any bill pro- 
posing a repeal of the fugitive slave law. General Pierce was 
not a candidate. He had refused to permit his friends, either 
in New Hampshire or in the convention, to present his name 
in that light. He was not at home when the letter of Captain 
Scott wa3 received. He was absent with a sick family, and 
never expected his name to be used in that connection. But 
he had letters there addressed to his New Hampshire friends, 
declaring that " if the compromise measures are not to be sub- 
stantially and firmly maintained, the plain rights secured by 
the Constitution will be trampled in the dust*" The moment 
he said the fugitive slave bill was founded on the Constitution, 
and secured rights under it, there is no tyro in America who 
does not know that, under the democratic creed, that is equiva- 
lent to a declaration that he would veto its repeal. So that it 
may be safely averred, that every body who had been spoken 
of as likely to be presented, was there either by letter expressly, 
or by necessary and obvious consequence, declaring that they 
would veto all attempts at its repeal. With all their candi- 
dates breathing such noble sentiments, no difficulty could be 
experienced in the selection. Cass, Buchanan, Douglass, 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 257 

Marcy and others, had their friends who for a long time were 
unwilling to give them up. Virginia at last, to end the strife of 
friends, not of foes, led off for Franklin Pierce. State after 
State followed her example, until he was made the nominee 
by general acclamation. Nor was there the slightest difficulty 
about our platform. The public declarations, the known and 
recorded sentiments of every candidate, or person spoken of, 
made that an easy work. No abolitionists were there, polluting 
our councils or resisting our platform. A few that had once 
been known as freesoilers, cheerfully abandoned the heresy. 
They returned to their democratic allegiance, bringing with 
them " fruits meet for repentence," a willingness and determin- 
ation to stand by the execution of the fugitive slave bill, as 
well as all other parts of the compromise. Here is the great 
difference on this point between the two conventions — we re- 
ceived only the penitent, who renounced his transgressions ; 
whilst they took them as they came, with all their sins bloom- 
ing upon them, voting against their platform and bidding de- 
fiance to them in their teeth. 

Our platform was read clearly and distinctly by Mr. French, 
in my opinion the best reading clerk in America. He paused 
at the close of every resolution. The slavery one he read 
twice, and twice did the shouts of approval ascend from all 
parts of the spacious hall. There was no leaving of members, 
for the convention, at the moment of its adoption, was almost 
crowded to suffocation. 

Let us turn now with every degree of fairness to the pro- 
ceedings of the whig convention. I grant to the whigs of the 
south an equal but not a greater devotion to the compromise — 
an equal but not a greater determination to maintain the 
rights of the south against the dark and demon spirit of fana- 
ticism. They ought to have. They have as much, I think 
more property at stake than we have. They have homes to 
be desolated and families whose peace, safety and repose are 
as dear to them as ours can be to us. But too intent upon a 
mere party triumph, they took no precautions as we did to 
purge their convention — to drive the abolitionists from it. 
They put no interrogatories to their candidates as we did. Had 
they done so Mr. Fillmore would have answered, I will main- 



258 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

tain the fugitive slave law as I have done through my admin- 
istration. Mr. Webster would have answered, I too will main- 
tain it as I have done as one of Mr. Fillmore's cabinet. What 
would Gen. Scott have answered? Why, "that I will not 
answer." Such a response would have turned him and all his 
abolition supporters out of the convention. This would have 
purified the party and left it standing as of yore on a high 
national platform. But suppose Gen. Scott had answered pub- 
licly that like Fillmore and Webster he too would maintain and 
execute the fugitive slave law. Why then Gen. Scott would 
have stood in high and honorable rivalry for the nomination, 
whilst the abolitionists would have gone out. They would have 
said to themselves, "What do we do here ? Fillmore is against 
us, Webster is against us, and now Scott, from whom we ex- 
pected better things, has also come out against us. We must 
withdraw, hold a convention of our own and flash the standard 
of Wm. H. Seward in the face of our foes, whig and demo- 
cratic." I know it is a great outrage both against fact and 
probability even to suppose that Gen. Scott would have answer- 
ed like Fillmore and Webster in favor of maintaining the fusri- 
live slave law. He was tried upon that point in another way 
equally binding and impressive. Long before the convention 
he received a letter from one of his fellow-citizens asking him 
to give his opinions publicly in favor of that measure : his 
answer was, I will not. A Senator from Tennessee on the sab- 
bath day went to him and desired him to come out : his answer 
was again substantially, I will not. He gave this trisyllabic 
response to ever body and on all occassions. Sirs, he might 
have better said to Governor Jones, " I cannot come out — 
don't you see how I am situated — don't you see that it is 
the abolition legislatures that have nominated me — don't 
you see that all the abolition papers have my name flying 
at their head? Don't you see by the vote even yester- 
day that the sixty-six friends of Mr. Seward who voted against 
the platform would instantly desert me and leave the conven- 
tion? Why my dear Governor you are not really up to these 
things. I don't want them to go out, I want them to stay in. 
If they stay I get the nomination — if they go out I lose it. 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 259 

What signifies the purification of the whig party if I lose the 
presidency." 

Sirs, I must not elaborate. 1 must pass on to the closing 
scene of this nomination. For fifty ballots the friends of 
Fillmore stood firm, the friends of Webster stood firm, and 
the south began to feel some assurance of her safety. The 
hope was delusive. The hour was come, when according 
to many signs and secret whisperings through the convention, 
when enough of Tennessee would desert Mr. Fillmore and go 
over to General Scott to secure his nomination. Yes, the 
hour had come and the deed was done. Instantly the sixty- 
six abolitionists who voted against the platform, who trampled 
upon it and scorned it, raised the shout of exultation. Seward 
himself issued his circular to them congratulating them " that 
in voting for Scott, they had preserved fidelity to him and to 
their sacred principles of freedom and toleration." What did 
Seward mean in this exulting congratulation ? Why should 
they be faithful to Scott ? Because he had been faithful to 
them in not coming out publicly against them as Fillmore and 
Webster had done. How had they been faithful to their prin- 
ciples of freedom and toleration ? By voting against the fugi- 
tive slave bill as put down in the platform. Here is the true 
key to unlock the secret connection between the abolition party 
and Gen. Scott. He needed their votes to outnumber Mr. 
Fillmore and Mr. Webster in the convention, and they needed 
his great name and reputation to drag them upward to the 
level of one of the regular national parties of the nation. Sirs, 
this connection of facts ought to make the blood curdle in your 
veins. It tells you, I fear, in the language of Sir Robert Peel, 
that your doom is sealed ! 

Do you ask how the nomination and election of Gen. Scott 
can seal the doom of the south? Hear me silently and thought- 
fully and I will tell you. Whose candidate would Millard 
Fillmore have been ? The candidate of the southern whigs. 
Why ? Because a majority of his friends were such. Whose 
candidate would Daniel Webster have been ? Of the northern 
whigs. Why ? Because a majority of his friends were such. 
Whose candidate is Gen. Scott? Of the abolitionists and 
freesoilers. Why ? Because a majority of his friends were 



2 GO CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES, 

abolitionists and freesoilers. Without them he could not have 
been the candidate, but with them he is. He had one hun- 
dred and thirty-one votes, sixty-six of these, being a majority, 
voted against the platform even emasculated as it was. It 
was to these sixty-six, that Seward addressed the circular let- 
ter of congratulation, that they had preserved their sacred 
principles of freedom and toleration. Thus it is that if there 
is truth in records and power in logic, he is the abolitionist 
and freesoil candidate. 

Now what follows this great fact ? That you have lifted up 
and given rank and importance to this dangerous party. In 
social life he who marries a woman lifts her up at once to his 
own rank and condition. So Gen. Scott having allied himself 
to this party, comes up with it leaning on his arm, and demands 
its recognition as one of the great and respectable parties of 
the country. The South may protest against it. She my protest 
ever so solemnly; but amid the war plumes of the soldier and the 
cunning sophistry of those who have solemnized the unholy 
banns, she may be lulled into an acquiescence, which must 
prove to her fatal as the sleep of death! It is argued that, not- 
withstanding all these facts poisoning the very fountain of his 
nomination, that Gen. Scott is in fact a friend to the South, 
with no dangerous affinities for the freesoilers and abolition- 
ists. I deny it ; every word of it. They have not given him 
this nomination without cause. He has for years been bidding 
for the Presidency — to the anti-Masons — to the native Ameri- 
can party against foreigners ; and to no faction and to no 
party has he paid court more assiduously than to the aboli- 
tionists and freesoilers. Look to the great turning point of 
this slavery agitation. So long as their societies were confined 
in their labors to the North, they were harmless. Their travel- 
ling lecturers and inflammatory publications, could exert but 
little influence over the nation at large. Hence the determin- 
ation was formed, to enlarge the sphere of their operations by 
gaining admittance in the Halls of Congress. Hear their own 
opinions of the importance of getting there : " Before slavery 
can be abolished there must be a discussion of the whole sub- 
ject on the floors of both houses of Congress. All the argu- 
ments with which abolitionists have flooded the North would 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 



261 



then be brought forward, to prove the instrinsic iniquity, the 
cruelty, the impolicy of slaveholding. A thorough discussion 
of this whole subject in the halls of our national legislature, 
would be equal to a discussion in the legislature of every slave- 
holding State in the Union. The act of abolition being done, 
the moral influence would pierce the heart of the whole system. 
It would pronounce and sign its death warrant. It would be 
the solemn verdict of the nation decreeing the annihilation of 
this dark abomination. It would write in letters of flashing fire 
over the gateway of the national capitol, ' no admittance for 
slavery.' The whole system would be thus outlawed and brand- 
ed with ignominy, consigned to execration and ultimate de- 
struction." 

The South saw this great turning point in their fate. They 
saw Mr. Adams with all his hatred for the South, step forward 
as their champion, and inviting them to come forward with 
their petitions. They did come by hundreds and thousands. 
Mr. Adams demanded that they should be treated in all re- 
spects like other petitions — that they should be received 
should be printed, should be referred to a committee and re- 
ported upon and debated. Nothing less than this would satisfy 
him. The South insisted that to do all this would be ruinous 
to her safety and her property. That these inflammatory 
petitions and speeches would be sent all over the slave States, 
and be read by the midnight torch on their plantations, lead- 
ing to insurrections with all their attendant horrors. For the 
sake of peace, for the sake of this Union, we yielded to the re- 
ception of the petitions — that the mover should state their con- 
tents, and that then they should be laid on the table, (equiva- 
lent to a rejection,) without being printed, without reference 
and without debate. Thu3 the parties took their positions. 
The struggle was intense. The amount at stake was large, 
being no less than nine hundred millions of property and the 
safety and repose of every southern family. One northern 
man after another deserted us and went over to Mr. Adams. 
But there was one northern man who did not and would not 
desert us. True as steel and with a heart as big as the con- 
stitution he stood by us to the last. That man was General 
Franklin Pierce. For that deed alone, the South owes him a 



2G '2 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

debt of everlasting gratitude. Day after day, in both houses 
of Congress, he stood by us, speaking for us, and voting with 
us, against John Quincy Adams, through that arduous strug- 
gle. Do not read to me old rusty abolition newspapers : you 
need not tell me what this or that poorly informed individual 
has said against it. I know what I say — for I both saw and 
heard him. Senator Henderson, a whig from Mississippi, sat 
by him and says that he is the truest man to the south he ever 
saw. Besides, sirs, look to the Journals of Congress. I have 
all the pages here and will give copies to any body to inspect 
them by. They crush — they annihilate all your lying news- 
papers and your drunken or prejudiced certifiers who say 
that Franklin Pierce was unfaithful to the constitution or the 
rights of the south. But how was it with Gen. Scott ? He 
was in the regular army, a soldier by profession, and need not 
have taken sides at all. But ever restless and ambitious he 
must step forward into the arena and throw down his sword 
and influence at the feet and the service of John Quincy 
Adams. He threw them down against the land of his birth, 
" his own native land." Open his own life now carried about 
by all his advocates and there read his letters contending that 
all these petitions should be received and referred and treated 
in all respects like all other cases. 

This was one of the deeds, the fatal deeds, that attracted 
the abolitionists so strongly to him Let me present you to 
another. " I am persuaded," says he in one of his letters, 
" that it is a high moral obligation of masters and slave-hold- 
ing States to employ all the means not incompatible with the 
safety of both colors to ameliorate slavery even to its exter- 
mination." How different the sentiment attributed to Pierce 
and which is common among all northern men, and frequent 
among southern ones, that slavery is asocial and political evil. 
A social, not a moral evil — a social one is supposed to affect 
society injuriously, but still being guaranteed by the constitu- 
tion must be sustained with fidelity and honor. Not so with 
Scott. With him it is a great moral evil — a leprosy on the con- 
science of the master, which should not only be ameliorate! I 
but actually exterminated from the land. The master must do 
it — the State must do it — and nothing must stop them but the 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 



263 



safety of the two colors. The idea of constitutional right and 
guarantee of property never once enters into his calculation. 
What is this but the sentiments and almost the very language 
of the abolition party ? This is the second cord that bound 
them to him. 

The third one is, that during the whole discussion and con- 
troversy about the compromise questions, when parties were 
almost engaged in mortal combat and when the Union was 
reeling and tottering under the mighty conflict, when Cass, and 
Calhoun, and Buchanan, and Clay, and Webster, and Fillmore, 
boldly stept forward to rebuke the fanatics of the north and to 
restrain the too much exasperated sons of the south, Winfield 
Scott looked calmly on and failed to say one word or to write 
one line publicly denouncing their fanatic aggressions — looked 
calmly on, when great mobs in our cities were putting all laws 
at defiance, imprisoning our southern friends for demanding 
their own property; nay more, when they were literally mur- 
dered in open day, with the law of Congress in the one hand 
and the constitution of their country in the other — looked 
calmly on without throwing the influence of his name and his 
fame ■publicly in favor of the fugitive slave law and the rights 
of the south under it. Thus it was, that previous to his nomina- 
tion, Gen. Scott had drawn the abolitionists to him by trip- 
pie cords — cords of sympathy and gratitude. 

How has he patronized and encouraged them since ? In 
his letter to Mr. Archer (the breeches pocket letter of Mr. 
Botts,) he said, " In my letter of acceptance I shall give my 
views on the compromise in terms at least as strong as those I 
read to you the other day." According to Gov. Jones' account 
he said he would express his approbation of the measures of 
the compromise or die. Well, all this is flourishing boldly 
enough. But did he come out in his letter of acceptance at 
all? In any terms, strong or weak? Did he utter one word 
for or against the compromise ? Not one, not one ! He sim- 
ply said, " I accept the nomination with the resolutions annex- 
ed." Gen. Pierce said, "I accept the nomination upon the 
platform adopted by the convention, because the principles it 
embraces command the approbation of my judgment, and with 
which there has been no word or act of my life in conflict." 



264 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

Now, why did not Gen. Scott say something like that? For- 
getting- his letter to Archer and his declaration or promise to 
Jones, he sends in a cold and non-committal acceptance "with 
the resolutions annexed." 

And what sort of a platform, I pray you, did their resolu- 
tions make ? Not that one which Fillmore's friends had pre- 
pared in caucus — not that one that Webster's friends had 
solemnly agreed to ; but that one which the committee, Gov. 
Johnston being one of its members, had prepared in lieu of it, 
leaving out the very life and soul of the document. The dem- 
ocratic platform had declared against the agitation of any and 
all slavery questions ; so had Fillmore and Webster's. But the 
power of the abolition influence emasculated it and reported 
simply declaring that the specific questions settled by the com- 
promise should be acquiesced in : thus leaving all others, the 
abolition of slavery in the forts, arsenals and other public es- 
tablishments of the United States and the transportation of 
slaves from one State to another, still to be agitated both in 
and out of Congress. Thus is sustained one of my proposi- 
tion that they have dictated a creed to the whig party. What 
further assurances has he been pleased to give them since his 
nomination ? The letter of Senator Wade, as yet uncontra- 
dicted, informs us "that he had just had a conversation with 
Gen. Scott (in July) in which he declared that he would sooner 
cut oiF his right hand than lend it to the support of slavery. 
What! not lend your right arm to support it when the constitu- 
tion declares you shall do it ? Not lend your right arm to sup- 
port it when a dominant majority shall attempt to cleave it 
down by repealing the fugitive slave law : or when they shall 
pass a law to discharge on habeas corpus, in the most summary 
manner, any slave in this country? Would Gen. Scott not 
deign to stretch forth his right hand and by seizing hold on the 
veto power, save the constitution from violation and the rights 
of the south from destruction ? No he would not. He need 
not have so declared to Senator Wade. I care not whether he 
ever spoke to that Senator or not. Long ago he proclaimed 
the doctrine, that there ought to be no veto arresting the law 
when it passed a second time by a majority. Who ever heard 
of such a veto as that ? Why boys ought to know that practi- 



ON LTHE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 265 

cally it was no veto at all. That letter is enough to show the 
south her certain doom, if Gen. Scott should be elected. The 
north has a majority now of more than forty votes — a majority 
that is rapidly augmented by every apportionment. Under 
this doctrine nothing is left to stay the march of abolitionists 
and freesoilers to universal domination. This is not only the 
doctrine of Gen. Scott, but of his friends who support him in 
this State. Gov. Jones in one of his published speeches goes 
for the abolition of the veto power altogether, whilst General 
Haskell is reported in the New York Herald in one of his Tay- 
lor speeches as saying that " although a slaveholder, if Zachary 
Taylor pledged himself to veto the Wilmot proviso, he (Has- 
kell) would desert his standard." 

Here let every southern State and every slaveholder in this 
country come to a dead pause for a few moments. Let us look 
around us and understand our condition. The opinion of for- 
eign countries is pressing hard upon us. The opinion of half 
the States here at home, is pressing hard upon us — a dead 
majority of at least forty in Congress is against us. Now what 
safety or hope of safety have we, but in the Presidential veto? 
If that be denied to us our property, the property of whigs as 
well as democrats, must be swept from us. Gen. Scott maintains 
that there should be no veto against a final majority. Gov. 
Jones says it ought to be obliterated altogether. Gen. Haskell 
would not have it exercised to save us from the Wilmot proviso, 
and of course not to prevent a repeal of the fugitive slave law. 
Thus we are left naked, and exposed to the will of the majority, 
with no shelter to fly to, no arm to save us, and General Scott 
boldly telling us that he would cut off his arm before he would 
extend it for our relief! 

It is vain to tell me that Gen. Scott has since his nomination 
declared his hearty approval of the compromise measures to 
many private individuals. Nobody wants private testimonials 
on vital questions like these. He may have too many breeches 
pocket letters, too many private conversations like the one 
with Senator Wade. These private conversations are too well 
calculated to make him " all things to all men." No, we want- 
ed public committals, public declarations, that would have 
driven bad and dangerous men away from your convention, 



26G CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

and have relieved the South from all danger and apprehension 
as to the candidate of either party. 

Nor will it do to say that silence before the election or a little 
equivocation since is only a matter of -policy in the election, and 
that when he is elected he will rise superior to all malign influ- 
ences. If he be a man he cannot ; if an honest man he will 
not. When abolitionists shall come to him at the moment when 
he may be forming his cabinet, and demand high places under 
his administration, how can he, how ought he to refuse them? 
They will say, Avithout us you could not have gotten the nomin- 
ation. Gen. Scott must reply, I know it. They will further 
say, without us you could not have been elected ; he must re- 
ply, I know it. We have therefore breathed into your nostrils 
the very breath of your life. Without us you were nothing, 
but with us you have become the President. You cannot post- 
pone our demands in favor of the democrats, for you have 
made a clean sweep of them ; nor in favor of Millard Fill- 
more, for you remember his letter to the convention to go for 
Webster, and save the whig party ; nor in favor of Webster, 
for between you and him, as between Lazarus and Dives, there 
is an impassable gulf. We, therefore, demand it of you, that 
you advance us high in patronage and favor. Can Gen. Scott 
refuse them? Mr. Gentry says he will not. Christopher H. 
Williams says he will not. Stephens, Toombs and Cabell, and 
a long list of the best and truest members of the whig party, 
all say, that with the nomination of Gen. Scott, the reign of 
the whig party will end, and that of Wm. H. Seward and 
Horace Greeley will begin. 

But I must pass away from this branch of the subject. I have 
lingered long enough around the poisoned fountain of this 
nomination. I assume another ground, equally as fatal to the 
election of Gen. Scott. He is not qualified for the exalted sta- 
tion. He has been a soldier by profession all his life ; a bril- 
liant and successful one ; but he has no experience in civil af- 
fairs. What docs he know from study and reflection about 
the constitution, laws and treaties, of this country ? Where 
has he ever exhibited the slightest attainments in jurisprudence 
and civil government ? His friends and electors have been 
asked the question more than an hundred times. What do 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 267 

they answer? Why, that he has written a book. Aye, but 
what was it about ? Military tactics ! But he was sent to 
Europe. Aye, but what was his errand ? To inspect military 
fortifications ! But he was ordered to Charleston by General 
Jackson, charged with delicate and important duties. Aye, 
but he was to take no step except what related to the immedi- 
ate defence of the port, without the order of the collector or 
District Attorney ! So on the Maine boundary — so every 
where. He has never been employed or acquitted himself in 
any civil capacity in all his life, without having somebody to 
overlook and restrain him. 

But I am not content to overturn the vain pretences of his 
advocates. I carry the war into their own camp, and here to- 
day undertake to show affirmitively, that he has no qualifica- 
tions for civil affairs. He has made his own political record. 
He has made it by his letters and addresses. He belonged to 
the army, and might have said nothing. But, being vain and 
ambitious, he sought notoriety by throwing himself through his 
letters before the public eye in moments of high political ex- 
citement. In what one of these did he not commit some great 
blunder, injurious to his own fame and mortifying to his friends? 
Take for example his letter on Naturalization in 1841 : He 
says he was fired with indignation against foreigners, and sat 
down and prepared an address with the view of rallying an 
American party against them. That he fully concurred in the 
Philadelphia move against foreigners, and was inclined to re- 
peal the Naturalization laws altogether, and shut them out 
forever from the enjoyment of our free institutions. Who 
wants to vote for him for that letter? Its folly was so great 
that he has been half denying and apologizing for it ever since! 
Take now another case. He came out in great flourish in fa- 
vor of the celebrated bankrupt bill. But before the General 
could get much attention drawn to his letter, the measure had 
become odious, and down went the bankrupt bill and General 
Scott's letter together ! Let us have another letter. In 1843, 
when the great minds of America were discussing the question 
about slavery under the constitution, he again thursts for- 
ward his opinions, and declares in favor of the power of 
Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia — that 



268 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES, 

Congress ought to receive, refer and report on abolition peti- 
tions ! Let us have another one of his letters. At a period 
when his whole party was clamoring for a curtailment of exec- 
utive power and patronage, General Scott comes to the grave 
and profound conclusion, that they are all wrong, that the Pres- 
ident was not far enough removed from the people — that he 
ought to be released from such vulgar liabilities, and therefore 
should be elected for six years, rather than for four. There is 
another egregious folly in General Scott's civil career, which I 
am sure you must have anticipated, I mean his annexation of 
Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Territory large 
enough for thirty or forty new States, composed of many mil- 
lions of French and English population, monarchists and abo- 
litionists, to crush and grind us and our property to powder ! 
Horror struck at the idea of annexing Texas, that did not hold 
one thousand persons in it, except our countrymen and kindred, 
accustomed to our laws, and attached to our form of govern- 
ment ; but yet willing to bring in Canada, crowded with a 
population that hated all republics, and scorned our free in- 
stitutions ! 

Here then, is a full map of Gen. Scott's attempts to connect 
himself with the civil policy of the country. It is constructed 
out of his own materials : 

1st. His Naturalization letter, in which he lays the founda- 
tion for that native American party, from which has emanated 
all the persecutions against foreigners ever since. 

2d. His letter in favor of the now universally condemned 
bankrupt bill. 

3rd. His letter sustaining John Quincy Adams in bringing 
the subject of abolition into the Congress of the United 
States. 

4th. His letter maintaining that although Congress could 
not interfere with slavery in the States, she could abolish it in 
the District of Columbia. 

5th. His letter in favor of the annexation of Canada, New 
Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 

Gth. His letter making our government more aristocratic, 
by electing the President for six instead of four years. 

This map is complete. It delineates every attempt, six in 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 269 

all, to connect himself at any time with the civil policy of his 
country. Every one of them was a blunder, a failure, an abor- 
tion. Taken one by one, we must disapprove and condemn 
them : taken altogether, they force us to the conclusion, that 
he is not qualified for so high an office. The country is full to 
overflowing of men a thousand times better qualified. Every 
average county and city in the Union could furnish a candidate 
with higher civil qualifications. 

There is no uncharitableness in this expression of opinion. 
The chief men of the whig synagogue have gone before me. 
Horace Greeley, who next to Seward, is his ablest supporter, is 
reported to have said, "that Gen. Scott is a vain, conceited 
coxcomb of a man. His brains (all that he has) are in his 
epaulettes, and if he should be elected President, he would tear 
the whig party to tatters in less than six months." A distin- 
guished leader in East Tennessee does not hesitate to proclaim, 
" that he has vanity enough to damn seven successive whig ad- 
ministrations." Gen. ZollicofTer, of the Republican Banner, 
who was one of the three whig delegates who deserted from Fill- 
more, and went over to Scott, said, wrote and published of and 
concerning the aforesaid Winfield Scott, that he had no high 
opinion of his " very sound discretion or common sense.'''' What! 
destitute of common sense ? If so, no other sort of sense will 
be of any avail. Without common sense as the great basis of 
human intellect, all else is useless and even dangerous. The 
maniac may have every other sort but common sense, and your 
mere man of genius and imagination may be utterly useless 
for all the practical purposes of human life. No confidence 
in his common sense ! — vanity enough to damn seven succes- 
sive whig administrations ! — all his brains in his epaulettes, and 
in six months he would tear the whig party to tatters ! Well, if 
these are the opinions of the great high priests of the Scott 
party, I know you will pardon me for simply maintaining that 
he is not qualified to fill the exalted office and to perform the 
complicated and arduous duties of President of the United 
States. 

But I carry this question of qualification far beyond his 
want of political knowledge and experience in civil affairs. I 
maintain that his education, temper and disposition, disqualify 



270 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

him altogether to fill the office. His education has been mili- 
tary ; he has been in the regular army from his youth up. Mili- 
tary life has been with him a trade — a calling — the main, and 
in fact his only pursuit in life. The result is that he is proud and 
dictatorial. Impatient under opposition, he is ready to resolve 
every thing into a quarrel. Hence it is that his whole life has 
been made up of quarrels and complaints, with any body and 
against every body. In early life he quarrelled with Macomb 
about priority of rank. He quarrelled with the then adminis- 
tration, and could not be quieted but by the severest reprimand. 
He quarrelled with General Gaines, and never ceased his en- 
mity until the grave closed over the remains of that gallant 
old soldier. He quarrelled with General Jackson, and refused 
to say, with the frankness of a soldier, whether he was the 
author of certain slanders against him. He quarrelled with 
De Witt Clinton in the same case, and invited him to mortal 
combat when he knew his oath of office forbade its acceptance, 
and when he had declined to invite Gen. Jackson to the same 
wager of battle for a much greater offence. In the Florida war 
he quarrelled with the people of that territory, and denounced 
them, according to our recollection, in his order No. 48, as cow- 
ards and afraid of an Indian behind every bush. In the Mexi- 
can war, his whole career was marked with fuss, quarrels and 
feathers. 

He quarrelled with Polk for not sending him to Mexico, and 
when he did send him, he quarrelled with him for that. He 
quarrelled with Marcy for not sustaining him in the Quarter 
Master's Department, when he had the Quarter Master Gen- 
eral with him at New Orleans and Vera Cruz with unlimited 
authority to do anything and everything he might stand in need 
of. He quarrelled with the President for recalling him from 
Mexico when it was done at his own written request. He 
quarrelled with the Secretary for not allowing him to make pro- 
motions of his friends in the army over equally meritorious 
officers, contrary to the express provisions of the army regu- 
lations. He quarrelled witli and tried to disgrace Col. Harney, 
"the bravest of the brave,'' for no reason under the sun, ex- 
cept that he did not like him. He quarrelled with Generals 
Worth and Duncan, as gallant and line officers as ever drew 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 271 

the breath of life. I say nothing of Gen. Pillow's case. He 
is my kinsman and I pass that over altogether. But speaking 
of all the others, I boldly say that he exhibited an overbearing 
and tyrannical temper that totally unfits him for high command 
in civil life. 

But he was not content merely to quarrel with them — "to 
show a hasty spark and then be cold again." No, he arrest- 
ed them, stript them of their command — took away their 
swords, hacked and battered in many a hard battle, that he 
might wear the crown of laurels on his own brow. He did every 
thing to disgrace them in the face of the enemy. Take the 
case of Gen. Worth as a sample of the rest. How often had 
he headed his division and charged in the midst of carnage and 
death up to the cannon's mouth to win a battle, whilst General 
Scott was afar off in perfect safety, looking through his spy 
glass, and afterwards wearing the laurels of a victory which 
Worth had won for him at the risk of his life ! And yet, after 
all this, he hears read and permits to be transmitted to the 
United States for publication, the highest praises of himself 
and the grossest charges against Gen. Worth, which he him- 
self was afterwards compelled to abandon. The case of Dun- 
can, the brave and accomplished Duncan, is another, which 
might be adduced for the same illustration of Gen. Scott's 
overbearing character. Arrested and unsworded, all they 
could do was to appeal to their own government for justice. 
They asked a court of inquiry to investigate the whole case, 
and when this obvious justice was awarded them, Gen. Scott 
even quarrelled with the government for that. He complained 
that he, the accuser, should have to go before the same tribunal 
with the other officers of his command. I pray you hear the 
reply of Secretary Marcy to this strange, this proud and aristo- 
cratic complaint : 

" On what ground of right can you claim to have your case 
discriminated from theirs ? It is true that you have assumed 
to be their judge and have pronounced them guilty ; and you 
complain and repine that the laws of the country do not allow 
you, their accuser, to institute a tribunal to register your de- 
cree. But you are not their rightful judge, although they were 

your prisoners. Before that court all stand on the same level 

10 



27 '2 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

and all have equal rights. Though you may have the self sat- 
isfying conviction that you arc innocent, and they are guility, 
the government could act on no such presumption. By be- 
coming the accuser you did not place yourself out of tbe reach 
of being accused ; and unless you are clothed with the im- 
munity of despotic power, and can claim the benefit of the 
maxim " that the king can do no wrong," I know not why 
your conduct, when made the subject of charge, may not be 
investigated by a court of enquiry. * * * If your 
extraordinary pretensions are to derive any support from your 
distinguished services, you ought to be mindful that the three 
accused officers put under arrest by you have like claims for 
distinguished services. On the pages of impartial history their 
names and gallant deeds must appear with yours, and no 
monopolizing claims, nor malignant exclusions will be permit- 
ted to rob them of their fair share of the glory won by our gal- 
lant army, whilst under your command." There can be no 
doubt that it was this known incompetency in civil affairs, and 
his total disqualification in temper and disposition that prompt- 
ed Mr. Fillmore, when asked by his friends in the midst of the 
ballotting what they should do, to reply, " go for Mr. Webster 
and save the whig party" — that induced Mr. Clay on his dying 
bed to advise his son when he should be dead and gone, not 
to vote for Gen. Scott. 

But I leave the chapter of his quarrels with every body and 
about everything. With such a man for your President what 
could be expected but the blowing up of cabinets — arrests and 
court martials by land and by sea — recalls of foreign embas- 
sadors — quarrels and ruptures with foreign governments and 
the d — 1 to pay generally ! 

I now turn to a more pleasing and gratifying duty, the vin- 
dication of the democratic party — its policy — its creed and 
its candidate. Its policy adorns every page of American his- 
tory. Its triumphs have emblazoned your flag in every land 
and on every sea. It has carried your name and fame to every 
part of the habitable globe. Kings have beheld it and trem- 
bled. Nations have gazed upon it and rejoiced. But I speak 
of it now in its more restricted sense as now being practised 
and carried out on the recent questions of party controversy. 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 273 

At this very moment the whig party is paying a profound hom- 
age to every one of those disputed subjects. They are carry- 
ing out in full practice every measure which democracy has 
established ; making no effort and hardly entertaining a wish 
to defeat or disturb them. They administer the government 
without a National Bank. They cellect their own revenues by 
their own officers and we hear nothing of those anticipated 
evils of the sub-treasury, which were so confidently predicted. 
The tariff of 1846 is pouring into our coffers the most ample 
supplies, and but slight and occasional wishes are expressed 
in favor of its alteration. The vast accessions to our terri- 
tory are giving new impulses and directions to commerce, and 
our people are building up magnificent cities on the shore of 
the Pacific. 

In relation to our creed as recently set forth in our conven- 
tion, it has extorted from our enemies their loftiest eulogiums 
and silenced the cavils of the most reckless partisans. On the 
all absorbing topic of the present canvass it proclaims the 
most faithful adherence to the compromise in general, and in- 
sists on the most rigid execution of the fugitive slave bill in 
particular. In other words, the democratic party of the 
United States, amid the dangers of the present conflict, stand 
immoveably on the Constitution ; calm, firm, and erect, hold- 
ing that sacred instrument in the one hand and the farewell 
address of the sainted Washington in the other. There she 
stands, and come what may, there she will stand, with undy- 
ing devotion to liberty, the Constitution and the Union. In 
taking this noble stand I am proud to know and to aver, that 
the democracy of Tennessee stood out in advance of all others. 
We were the first to assemble after the passage of the com- 
promise. We assembled in the southern convention. We 
dissented from that body on several points, and to show our 
exact opinions, we presented what was called the Tennessee 
platform. It was the first Union platform ever erected io 
America. Georgia followed our example. Then Mississippi 
and several other States. In several instances they almost 
copied our very words on all the exact sentiments we had 
adopted. What were those sentiments ? That although the 
compromise did not award to us all that in our opinion we 



27 4 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

were entitled to, yet we would abide by it with that fidelity 
and honor which had always distinguished the south. We 
went one step farther. We declared that the north must also 
abide by it, and substantially that we would not submit to the 
repeal of the fugitive slave bill. This last, the whig party 
would not say. The whigs of the adjoining States would say 
it, and did say it, but the whigs of Tennessee would not 
say it. For saying in our platform that we would not 
submit to the repeal, they accused us of being too ultra 
and affiliating too much with the fire eaters of the south, 
as they were tauntingly called. We replied, that if we 
are too ultra for our rights, you are too ultra against 
them, and we pointed them day after day to their own 
brethren of Georgia — of Alabama and Mississippi, below 
whose platform they had immeasurably fallen. The re- 
tort was too powerful and the reference too obvious. It drove 
them to the wall. Gen. Zollicoffer, who wrote the first plat- 
form, resolved to amend and enlarge it in the midst of the can- 
vass. On the ever memorable Monday the 23d day of June, 
1851, the Republican Banner (the flag-ship of the party) 
came out with the declaration, extorted from him by the pres- 
sure of the canvass, " that if the fugitive slave bill should be 
repealed, thus annulling the Constitution, resistance should fol- 
low by the whole south united." This placed, for the first 
time, both parties on the same platform on the slavery ques- 
tions. Now, did they come to us, or did we go to them ? Let 
incontrovertable facts, dates and figures answer the question. 
We constructed our platform in November, 1850. We re- 
affirmed it in February, 1851, and Gen. Zollicoffer puthimself on 
it and dragged his party after him not until the June following. 
And yet an impudence so unblushing is not wanting to ask 
whence this new born zeal for the compromise, and for the fugi- 
tive slave bill in particular ? After having furnished the facts 
and dates, I waste no further time in answering a question 
founded on a perversion of facts so wilful, or an ignorance of 
them so profound. But the question is sometimes asked in re- 
lation to another speech, which I will answer. It is asked 
whence my new born zeal for the fugitive slave bill ? My an- 
swer is that my zeal is as old as the Tennessee platform, and I 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 275 

have just shown that that is the oldest upon record — older than 
that of any whig creed by many months. That I was the very 
author of the first declaration written out officially after the 
compromise was passed, that the fugitive slave bill must be 
preserved. But how is this, say the whig orators, did you not 
refuse in your convention speech to rejoice at the passage of 
the compromise ? Did you not say that your heart would 
sooner break than rejoice? And has dullness become so pro- 
found, as not to understand, how an unwillingness to rejoice 
over the compromise is compatible with a fixed determination 
to abide by and maintain it? Did the whigs rejoice ? Did 
any body rejoice in the south ? None except a very few at 
the first arrival of the news, and whose rejoicings instantly 
ceased when they learned from every letter and every circu- 
lar, that came from whigs and democrats, as well as from the 
acts of Congress themselves, that the compromise had been 
passed, not because it gave us all that the south was entitled 
to, but because it was the best that they could obtain for us. 
Among others the eloquent voice of Mr. Clay came booming 
to his countrymen that the south had lost all — ever}' thing, but 
the fugitive slave bill and her honor. All else was lost. After 
that, no man of sense of any party in Tennessee thought of 
rejoicing over it. All men and all parties here determined to 
acquiesce and abide by it, but none had the heart (who had a 
heart) to rejoice over that poor remnant of rights which Mr, 
Clay informed us had alone been preserved. Does the farmer 
go home rejoicing, when he has lost in court one half of the 
lands which had descended to him from his ancestors ? Does 
the soldier rejoice when he has been driven and routed from 
half the field of battle ? No, his victory must be full orbed — 
the enemy must have been captured or driven from the field 
before he sings the Te Deum of triumph ! 

Sirs, I begin to take some pains to preserve that convention 
speech and some others I have made. When I delivered 
them I had not the vanity to suppose there was much in 
them, but now that they have become the text book of so 
many whig orators, I begin to think more favorably of 
them. Their men of genius refer to them to break, if they 



~~ G CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

can, their force and power over the public mind. Their 
men of dullness turn to them to whet their flagging intel- 
lects, and when they can think of nothing else to say, 
with feeble articulation they mutter out something about 
Governor Brown ! Governor Brown ! Poor fellows ! I can give 
them speeches, but I cannot furnish them with brains to 
understand them. Perhaps in after times their children 
may read them as productions which their fathers had not 
the patriotism to approve nor the intellect to refute. 

Sirs, this personal vindication of myself lies in exact line 
with the objects I have before me. The platform which I 
drew and which the democracy of the State twice sanctioned, 
has been accepted and adopted by the democracy of the na- 
tion. The whig party of the south and the Webster portion 
of the north, have done the same thing in noble rivalry 
with us to preserve the Constitution and the Union. Re- 
member, I am speaking of that platform which the south- 
ern whigs, the friends of Fillmore prepared, not that life- 
less and soulless one which Governor Johnston's committee 
reported, shutting the door against the agitation of only 
one half of the slavery questions, whilst they throw it wide 
open as to all the others. Thus fortified, endorsed and 
sustained in my sentiments and opinions on the fugitive 
slave bill by the democracy of the State, as well as of the 
nation, and by the southern whigs themselves, in the pre- 
paration of their platform, my shield is impenetrable to 
the feeble shaft that strikes it and then falls harmless at 
my feet. 

Fellow-citizens, my duty is now done as it relates to the 
nomination of Gen. Scott, the malign influences that effected 
it, his incompetency in civil affairs, and his unfitness in temper 
and disposition to fill the exalted office. The more pleasing 
one remains of inviting your attention to the claims of Gen. 
Franklin Pierce to your confidence and support. He is descen- 
ded from a revolutionary patriot and soldier, whose devotion 
to liberty was attested on the heights of Bunker's Hill. Edu- 
cated in one of the best institutions of the north, he entered 
the world ripe in his scholarship. Engaging in the study and 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 



277 



then in the practice of the law, he soon reached an eminence 
in his profession which no mediocrity of talents could have at- 
tained. Thrown early into Congress, he rose rapidly to dis- 
tinction as one of the most talented and useful supporters of 
Gen. Jackson's administration. Transferred to the Senate, he 
exhibited all those high powers of debate that made him the 
worthy compeer of the illustrious men who then composed 
that body. I know of no man with whom so justly to com- 
pare him as with James K. Polk. Not much differing in age, 
in industry, in habits of study, in perseverance, in power of 
debate, in ardent devotion to the principles of the Constitution, 
and unflinching determination to support them, the resem- 
blance was striking and imposing. Gen. Jackson, great in his 
intuitive knowledge of men, foresaw his eminence. Mr. Cal- 
houn predicted it, and Mr. PoIk, every day identified with him 
in public labors, expressed the opinion that at some day he 
would be President of the United States. Gen. Pierce, how- 
ever, has never been an office-seeker, and has done nothing to 
bring about the realization of these predictions. He volunta- 
rily resigned the office of Senator. When Mr. Woodbury was 
appointed to the Supreme Bench of the United States, the ap- 
pointment was tendered to him to fill his vacancy, but he de- 
clined it. Pie declined the nomination for Governor of New 
Hampshire, when his election would have been certain. Pres- 
ident Polk invited him into his cabinet as Attorney General of 
the United States, which he also declined, writing that he had 
resolved never to accept an office which would separate him 
from his family, except at the call of his country in time of 
war. That time soon arrived. Like his father before him, 
lie was ever ready to make battle for his country. He volun- 
teered for the Mexican service, and when he reported himself 
to the President, he tendered to him the commission of Colonel, 
and afterwards promoted him to that of Brigadier General. It 
is not my purpose to recite the history of his military service in 
Mexico. In his march from Vera Cruz to the main army in 
the interior, in the battles of Contreras, Churubusco, Molino 
del Rev and Chepultepec, the reports of Generals Scott, Pillow 
and Worth, bear high and honorable testimony to his gallantry 



278 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

and good conduct. Still the tongue of slander and detraction 
has assailed him. The poisoned arrow of defamation had as 
well be directed against the courage of the Commander-in- 
Chief as against that of Gen. Pierce. Stationed on the sum- 
mit of some distant hill, with his spyglass in his hand, there 
was no danger of being thrown from his horse whilst charging 
the enemy over the craggy and dangerous pedrigal. Yet no 
cormorant appetite for slander ever charged General Scott 
with cowardice because he viewed the progress of the battle 
from positions exempted from danger. Not so with General 
Pierce. There is no such liberality and sense of justice reserved 
for him. A Field-Marshal of France could but yesterday be 
thrown from his horse and be instantly killed — the gallant 
Ridgcly could share the same fate — but it was impossible for 
the horse of Gen. Pierce to fall ; or if he fell, it was impossible 
that its rider should have been much injured ; or if much in- 
jured, it is incredible that he should the next day have fainted, 
in the heat of the action, from the severity of his wounds or 
bruises ! The American people understand too well the mo- 
tives which prompt to such base and infamous attacks to lend 
the ear of credulity to the foul insinuation. Gen. Scott himself 
stands convicted of falsehood, if Gen. Pierce acted not the 
part of a brave and gallant soldier. But I mean to lay but lit- 
tle stress on the military prowess of either. Mere military at- 
tainments, unaccompanied by qualification in civil affairs, to 
me furnish no passport to the Presidcnc}*. Gen. Washington 
had been a soldier, but with him it had never been a trade, a 
calling, a lifetime pursuit, as it has been with General Scott. 
With Washington, his generalship sunk into insignificance 
when compared with his solid, massy, practical good sense, 
and his disinterested and lofty patriotism. Gen. Jackson was 
a citizen soldier, with whom arms had been but a mere incident 
of his life, not his main pursuit. He had been a judge of our 
highest court, a member of Congress and Senator, exhibiting 
in every situation civil qualifications of the highest order. So 
it is with Gen. Pierce. We refer to the fact of his having 
volunteered in the services of his country and to his gallantry 
and good conduct in it only to evince his patriotism, whilst we 



,0N THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 279 

point to his eminence at the bar, in the halls of Congress, in the 
Senate of the United States, to attest his high and undoubted 
civil qualifications. On the life and death question involved 
in this canvass, every day is developing his devotion to the 
Constitution, and to our rights under it, which must endear him 
forever to his countrymen. 

Two years ago, in the very heat of the battle, when blow 
after blow, and crash after crash, seemed to announce the 
downfall of the republic, John P. Hale, the great leader of 
the abolitionists, proclaimed in a public speech that he was 
ready to head an army and to march upon the south to put 
down slavery. What did Franklin Pierce say to that ? He 
sprung forward like the Numidian tiger, and replied, "You shall 
first march over my dead body ; for I will head an army to op- 
pose you !" Noble sentiment ! Heroic declaration ! CouLd 
old Marion or Sumpter have beat that? Did Gen. Scott ever 
make for you such a speech as that ? Did he ever exhibit 
such a sublime devotion to us and to the Constitution ? No ; 
for at that very moment, he was being nominated by every abo- 
lition legislature, and his name flying at the mast-head of every 
abolition newspaper at the north. Fillmore was trying hard 
to breast the storm ; Webster was putting forth all his mighty 
power; Pierce was bearding the great lion of the tribe, face to 
face ; but Winfield Scott had not one single word to say pub- 
licly in your behalf! Nay, worse than that, he threw his 
sword, his war plumes, and all his large honors in the scale 
against you ! 

There they are yet, and there they will remain until this tra- 
gedy shall end. And end it must. I know not when nor how. 
But when I see so many of my countrymen yet fast asleep in 
the arms of party — when I see them slumbering on the brink 
of ruin — when a threat to march large armies down upon them 
to take away nine hundred millions of their property, can 
rouse them up to no preparation — when they hesitate to stand 
by those who are ready to throw their dead bodies between 
them and danger, I am obliged to have and I do have forebo- 
dings as to how this tragedy is to end — that it must end as the 
creed of abolition declares, in vengeance, revolution and death ! 



^ S0 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTI1ER SPEECHES. 

In the language of Mr. Webster, more eloquent and appropri- 
ate than any which I can utter, " If that catastrophe shall 
happen let it have no history. Let the horrible narrative never 
be written. Let its fate be like the lost book of Livy, which 
no human eye shall ever read. Or like the missing Pleiad, of 
which no man can ever know more, than that it is lost and lost 
forever." 



SPEECH 

Of Gov. Aaron V. Brown, at the Charleston and Calhoun 
Mass Meeting, taken from the Knoxville Plebeian, of October 
IQth, 1852. 



Gov. A. V. Brown said: In the present canvass the whig 
party had no candidate for the Presidency. We deplore the 
fact, because with all its faults and all its errors, it is a thou- 
sand-fold better than that dangerous faction which had lately 
outnumbered them in convention, superseded their favorite 
candidates, and set up one of their own. He did not blame, 
he did not reproach them for not having a candidate. He said 
he knew how hard they tried to have one — how carefully they 
appointed their delegates to the convention, and how cautious 
they were, in most cases, to guard by specific instructions 
against the very calamity which had befallen them. 

It is somewhere said in the Sacred Writings, continued Gov. 
Brown, that when the saints of the Lord had assembled to- 
gether, Satan also appeared amongst them. So it was when 
the whig party assembled in Baltimore ; the abolitionists 
of the north also appeared in their midst, and boldly de- 
manded the nomination of their candidate. That candidate 
was Winfield Scott. The whigs proper refused to accept him. 
They demanded to know his principles by public avowal. He 
refused publicly to avow them. To bring his whig principles 
fully and finally to the test, the whigs presented him with their 
platform of principles, but his friends rejected it with scorn. 
They spit upon it and trampled it beneath their feet. There- 
upon, the whigs proper of the convention presented Millard 



2S2 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

Fillmore and Daniel Webster as their candidates in opposition 
to him. 

This, said he, is the first act in the grand drama. He then 
enquired of them to tell him, before they had obscured it 
by any other consideration, whose candidate was Daniel 
Webster ? They would tell him he was the candidate of the 
northern whigs. Why ? Because they brought him forward. 
Whose candidate was Millard Fillmore? Of the southern 
whigs. Why ? Because they brought him forward. Whose 
candidate was General Scott? They must say, of the abo- 
litionists. Why? Because they brought him forward — would 
have nobody else — would divide on nobody else, but stood in 
firm, unbroken column for him, " first, last, and all the time." 

He then proceeded to the second act in the convention 
drama. The balloting was about to commence. Look, said 
he, at the parties. There stood Daniel Webster, surrounded 
by only twenty-nine of his faithful followers ; all the rest had 
been swept away in that terrible storm of fanaticism which has 
been sweeping over the States of the north. Close by his side 
stood Millard Fillmore, surrounded by the whigs of the south, 
whose rights and property they considered he had generously 
protected until every northern friend had fled from his stand- 
ard. There they stood, the only hope and the only candidates 
of the whig party proper, cither north or south. 

But who were they standing on the opposite side, in marshal 
array against them ? The black flag of abolition waving over 
them told us too plainly who they were. They were the rep- 
resentatives of the principles of William H. Seward, of Horace 
Greeley, and Garrison, and of Fred Douglass. They were 
those who raised great mobs in the cities of Boston and New 
York, in order to prevent the restoration of southern property. 
They were those whose hands were yet red with the blood of 
southern men, murdered at Christiana in open day, for simply 
demanding their own property under the Constitution. They 
were those who openly declare in this canvass that the fugitive 
slave law shall be repealed, and agitation in Congress and out 
of Congress shall never cease, until every slave in America 
shall be taken from his lawful master. In the midst of such 
social incendiaries as these, they saw the tall and portly form 



OX THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 283 

of their candidate, Winfield Scott ; not such as he was when 
proudly standing in the halls of the Montezumas, but like Lu- 
cifer, shorn of his celestial beauty, standing amid the fallen 
spirits of pandemonium. 

Such were the candidates, and such the friends who brought 
them forward and supported them. Day after day, and ballot 
after ballot, left the parties at the close of the week where they 
started in the contest. On Monday morning the convention 
again assembled. The parties, said he, resumed their posi- 
tions, and preparations began for the last final struggle. But 
hold ! Nine hundred millions of southern property — the peace 
and safety of every southern family are at stake ! Hold, until 
they ascertain that every southern man is at his post. Call 
the friends of Daniel Webster. They were there in true and 
loyal devotion to the Constitution. Call the friends of Millard 
Fillmore. State after State, said he, answered " Here !" At 
last Tennessee was called. Nine out of twelve champions re- 
sponded, " We are here ready for the charge." But where, 
he asked, were the other three? Call them. Gen. Zollicoffer ! 
Gen. Zollicoffer ! No answer comes. Gov. Jones ! Gov. Jones ! 
No response was given. It was strange ! It looked suspi- 
cious ! Yonder they were, ranged under the same banner with 
Seward and Greeley. They had left their nine comrades — 
they had deserted Mr. Fillmore — they had disobeyed their in- 
structions, and all was lost ! One ballot more told the sad 
story that Mr. Webster and Mr. Fillmore, the only whig candi- 
dates before the convention, were defeated; and the long, loud 
shout of the abolitionists proclaimed that their candidate was 
nominated. 

He said, their candidate — he was nobody else's candi- 
date. For fifty ballots, not one solitary southern whig, now 
remembered, voted for him. All were from the north, and 
from those States most violently opposed to the constitutional 
rights of the south. 

He asked them to tell him if Gen. Scott was brought for- 
ward by the abolitionists, and for fifty ballottings was supported 
by abolitionists alone, how could the going over of three Ten- 
nesseeans to that side make him the whig candidate ? As dele- 
gates, he said, they had no right to desert Mr. Fillmore. They 



284 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTLIER SPEECHES. 

were under special instructions. No discretionary powers had 
been given them. If the power of attorney be given to do one 
thing and the agent do another, the act is void and of no effect. 
To do the thing forbidden is a fraud, Which, in every civilized 
country, would set aside the whole transaction. It was a falsi- 
fication of the record to say they had a general authority, first 
to go for Mr. Fillmore, and if they could not get him, then to 
go for somebody else. Go read the proceedings of the conven- 
tion, and they would find no such thing intended. Go behind 
the record, and they would find the whole whig press of the 
State out for Fillmore, " first, last, and all the time." On the 
29th day of May, the Banner proclaimed that " if Gen. Scott 
does not write and publish his committal to the finality of the 
compromise, we cannot, and will not support him, though 
nominated by the Whig National Convention " The Banner 
would not be content with anything he had written and pub- 
lished before that time, but he must thereafter come out and 
publish some committal to the finality of the compromise. 
When those three men deserted Mr. Fillmore, had Gen. Scott 
written and published any such committal ? Gen. Zollicoffer 
was one of the men who deserted Fillmore, and now he would 
try him by his own w r ords. On Monday morning, when he and 
Gov. Jones, and one other, deserted their nine comrades — when 
they threw down their instructions and went over and took 
their seats by the side of the immortal sixty-six, who spit upon 
the platform, had Gen. Scott ever written and published any 
committal to the finality of the compromise ? It was a grave 
question, and he was prepared to prove that he had not. He 
would call no democratic witness — no anti-Scott witness. No. 
He would call to the stand Scott's file-leader and bosom friend, 
Gov. Jones. He had proclaimed it to the world " that he had 
tried with all his powers of persuasion to get Gen. Scott to 
write a letter to the convention stating his position on political 
questions. That he could not help the conviction that his 
nomination depended on his writing such a letter. But he had 
got it into his head that he ought not, and would not write a 
letter, and did not write one." There was the proof positive, 
undeniable. Zollicoffer said, " if he will not write and publish 
one, we will not support him." Gov. Jones says that " he 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 285 

would not and did not write one." Yet in the face of this 
solemn pledge to his brother whigs of the State — in the face of 
this positive testimony of his bosom friend, Gov. Jones — in the 
face of the solemn resolution of the other nine delegates never 
to desert the standard of Mr. Fillmore, he went over to the 
support of Gen. Scott ! There was no escape from this array 
of proof. It fastened down upon those men their rank and 
wilful disobedience to the whole whig sentiment of the State, 
so strong and so undeniably, that nothing could save them but 
to run up the open flag of rebellion against their party in the 
State, and to say, " Let Gentry do as he please — let Christo- 
pher H. Williams murmur if he dare — let Ephraim H. Foster, 
Francis B. Fog, Dr. McNairy, Col. Whiteside and all the rest, 
know that they are mere atoms in the party, which we can 
blow away at pleasure." 

And such indeed is the expedient which these bold and rash 
men are now resorting to in this election. The whig party of 
the State met and instructed their men. They said to them, 
" Go in our name and bring back to us a good whig candi- 
date fully and expressly committed to the faithful execution of 
the fugitive slave bill. Bring Millard Fillmore." Well, they 
went. Did they bring Millard Fillmore? No. Did they 
bring any body publicly committed to the fugitive slave law ? 
No. Did they bring them a whig candidate at all ? No. What, 
then, had they done ? They had thrown down their instructions. 
They had required no public committal that nine hundred 
millions of property should be protected. They had gone over 
and joined their worst and bitterest enemies — enemies to us — 
enemies to our property. Enemies who hold that we are so 
vile, degraded and dishonest, that they will not admit us to 
any social or moral equality whatever. In short, they had 
formed an alliance with the sixty-six abolitionists, who spit 
upon their platform of principles. And now they had come 
home and were traversing the State from one end to the other, 
to cut off the head of any true whig who should dare refuse to 
form the same coalition in the election which they did in the 
nomination. He had come here to-day to ask the whigs one 
great question : "Can they co-operate with their sixty-six men 
who constituted the majority of Gen. Scott's friends ?" 



2SG CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

What did southern whigs want ? they wanted the fugitive 
slave bill maintained, they wanted a President who, if it should 
be repealed by a majority of Congress, thereby overruling the 
Constitution, would veto it. They wanted one, who would throw 
all his influence in favor of stopping all agitation on this dis- 
tracting question. They wanted one who would maintain and 
uphold the Constitution and thereby preserve our glorious 
Union. The sixty-six wanted one of opposite character — 
one that would recognize some higher law than the Constitu- 
tion, and would rather see the Union rent in twain, than sur- 
render one jot or tittle of their wild and furious fanaticism. 
The whigs of Tennessee, those who had not been seduced by 
visions of power and office, differed from this majority (sixty- 
six) of Gen. Scott's friends, as widely as the poles. How 
then was it possible that they could coalesce with them in this 
election as their three delegates had done in the nomination. 
He knew well how this argument was met. No whig orator 
had ever denied that the majority of Scott's friends were abo- 
litionists — rank, furious abolitionists. They did not deny it, 
but sought to evade the crushing power of facts by saying 
that freesoilers aided in the nomination of Gen. Pierce. That 
he was brought forward under the auspices of the Van L!u- 
rens and the Butlers of New York. He asked them how often 
had they read and heard that ? Yet he, then and in their pres- 
ence, would tell them it was false — every word of it false. He 
knew that the friends of the Van Burens (for they were not 
there themselves) in the Baltimore Convention, on every ballot 
voted for Wm. L. Marcy. They never voted for anybody else. 
For a long time they voted alone. They were all in the New 
York delegation. Virginia brought in Franklin Pierce. True, 
those few friends of the Van Burens voted finally for Gen. P., 
to make his nomination as nearly unanimous as possible. But 
to say that they manoeuvred for his nomination, and that he 
was brought up under their auspices, was a gross libel upon 
the real facts as they transpired in the convention. Some barn- 
burners, by which he meant Van Buren men, did sit in our 
convention, but they came there bringing the highest proof of 
their repentance and reformation. 'What was that proof? 
Their voting for "Marcv, one of the strongest friends of the 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 287 

fugitive slave law in the United States — voted for him, after 
he had written and published that he would veto any bill passed 
by Congress to repeal or impair its efficacy. Mark the differ- 
ence. Write it on the wall — proclaim it on the house-tops — 
let all men read, and hear, and know the difference between 
their convention and our convention. Abolitionists were re- 
ceived in their convention, spitting on their principles and 
trampling their platform under their feet. The freesoilers in 
our convention, or rather those who had been such, came as 
repentant sinners — voting for our platform — voting for Marcy, 
who had just declared he would veto any bill repealing or af- 
fecting the fugitive slave law. What more could we ask? 
What more could they have done ? 

Gov. Brown said he had now finished this parallel between 
the two conventions. He returned to the great question : — 
Would the whigs of Tennessee, having failed to get Mr. Web- 
ster or Mr. Fillmore — the only whig candidates before the con- 
vention — now consent to take Gen. Scott as their candidate by 
adoption? Will they take him by adoption? * * * * 

Gov. Brown, in continuation of this argument at a subse- 
quent day in the canvass, in Dresden, maintained that the whig 
party, as such, was under no obligation thus to take him. You 
ought not, said he, because he did not come fairly by the 
nomination. The Archer letter contained a promise to come 
out in favor of the fugitive slave law, which was never re- 
deemed ; he did not do so in his letter of acceptance ; he does 
not, in any of his many speeches which he is now making in 
his western tour. He seems to be entirely content with the 
nomination without looking to that promise at all. He has 
doubtless read, and is acting upon, the story of the sailor, who 
when compelled to leave his vessel and swim for safety to the 
shore, in his extremity began to pray to the Virgin. Among 
other things, he promised that if she would only save him this 
time, he would burn, in honor of her, a wax candle as big 
as his body. His comrade, who was swimming lustily by his 
side, remarked, " Thou fool ! where can you ever get a candle 
as big as your body?" " Never mind," said he, " let me once 
get on shore, and the Virgin may whistle for her candle." 
Yes, sirs, Gen. Scott got the nomination, and the whig party 
20 



268 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

may whistle for the candle. He got it by the double-dealing of 
a portion of the convention who were specially instructed by 
their constituents to vote for another. They gave only a nomi- 
nal obedience, whilst they were really, from first to last, in 
favor of Gen. Scott. He got it by the sacrifice of the great 
doctrine of instruction, without which, Gov. Brown contended, 
this government was no better than any other government. 
He got it by refusing to come out publicly on the fugitive slave 
bill and the compromise generally, although an hundred whigs, 
J. C. Jones among the number, earnestly entreated him to do so. 
The presence of Gov. Seward, and Gen. Scott's silence, is 
ominous of the vast influence which is hereafter to be exer- 
cised over him. A senator in Congress and one hundred other 
whigs may go to him and appeal to him to give his views, and 
Mr. Seward has only to go along with them and say, with a 
significant nod, " Yes, sir, come out," to seal his lips against 
every declaration of his principles. Gen. Scott knew well that 
the hundred whigs expected him to come out for the fugitive 
slave bill, whilst Gov. Seward required him to come out against 
it. In the face of this fact, stated by Gov. Jones, my competi- 
tor, Judge Brown, on yesterday declared, that so far from hav- 
ing any influence over him, Gen. Scott would hang the aboli- 
tionists as high as Haman. Ha ! are you sure of that? I 
think, said he, the danger is, the hanging will be the other way. 
I think the abolitionists have rather gotten the rope around the 
Judge's neck, and will be more apt to hang him and Gen. Scott 
and all of us together. Now you, said Gov. B., go a great deal 
farther than the whig elector for this end of the State ; as far 
as he goes is, that when some one told Gen. Scott that it had 
been said, that if he was elected Seward would have too much 
influence over him, he replied, "Damn Seward." Now even 
this last story, I fear, is too much like that of the man who 
said he had been up towards Windsor Castle where the king 
was residing. " Ah !" said his friend, " what have you been 
up there for?" " Why, to see the king." " Did you see him?" 
" Yes, I did." " Did you speak to him ?" " Yes, I cursed him 
black and blue !" " What ! did he hear you curse him ?" " O, 
no, he was about a half a mile off!" So I think it will be when- 
ever Gen. Scott shall curse Witt, II. Seward. So here you have 



GNJTHE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 289 

it: Judge Brown tells you Scott will hang them, and General 
Haskell tells you he will at least damn them. Can he offer to 
hang those sixty-six friends of his who stuck to him through 
thick and thin, and who spit upon and spurned the whig plat- 
form ? How can he have the heart to damn even Fred Doug- 
lass, the free negro, who from first to last (or his representative) 
stuck to him closer than a brother ! The whole story reflects 
no credit either on the piety or gratitude of your candidate. 

Sirs, it was this very silence, and Gov. Seward's power by 
his mere presence and look, to insure it, that furnished a pow- 
erful motive to the abolitionists to select him as their candi- 
date ; besides, he had spoken out in their favor on many oc- 
casions ; he had spoken out when he declared, with John Q. 
Adams, that those petitions ought to be received, and referred, 
and reported on in Congress, like all other petitions ; he had 
spoken out in his Atkinson letter when he said, " I am per- 
suaded that it is a high moral obligation of masters and slave- 
holding States to employ all means not incompatible with the 
safety of both colors, to meliorate slavery even to extermina- 
tion." What a word for abolitionists ! Gen. Scott labelled it 
on his person, and every fanatic of the north had only to look 
at him and spell ex-ter-mi-na-tion. So much as to what at- 
tracted the abolitionists to Gen. Scott ; now what was it that 
attracted him to them ? I answer, the Presidency. He had 
looked around him to count his chances ; he saw the whigs of 
the south had selected Mr. Fillmore ; the whigs of the north 
had selected Mr. Webster, and the abolitionists alone were 
without a candidate ; he wanted their votes, and they wanted 
his name and fame to drag them into respectability, and to 
give them the advantage of a more favorable position for fu- 
ture agitation and mischief. 

Sirs, I do not pretend to say that Gen Scott is really an abo- 
litionist, nor to intimate that hundreds and thousands who sup- 
port him are such ; but his alliance with them, and his consent 
to head and lead them on, is not the less dangerous to the 
south nor discreditable to him. I say this to repel the charge 
of Judge Brown that the democratic party is disposed to slan- 
der and traduce Gen. Scott. I repel it, and defy him to the 
proof. He says that when he had fought all the battles of 
Mexico and subdued that nation, that he was arrested, his 



290 



CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 



sword taken from him, and he was brought home in chain?. 
Sirs, where did he learn all this ? In what book ? In what 
record ? No, sir, he is behind the times. Gen. Scott was never 
arrested — never unsworded. He arrested others — unsworded 
them — and did every thing in his power to disgrace them in 
the face of the enemy ; but he was never arrested, and was 
never put on trial for anything. He was recalled from Mexi- 
co, but he was recalled at his own request. Hear what the 
Secretary of War, Mr. Marcy, tells him and you on this sub- 
ject: " As early as June you begged to be recalled ; you allege 
that this application was rebukingly declined. This is not 
saying the exact thing. The reply to your request was, that 
it would be decided with exclusive reference to the public good. 
When that shall render it proper, in his opinion, to withdraw 
you from the present command, his determination to do so will 
be made known to you. Judging from the state of things at 
the head-quarters of the army in January, he (the President) 
concluded that he ought no longer to require of you reluctant 
service as Commanding General." 

There, said Gov. Brown, is the whole foundation for all 
Judge Brown's complaints of slander and persecution. He 
begged himself to be recalled; he was recalled; and now we 
hear that he was arrested, unsworded, brought home a prisoner 
in disgrace ! On the score of slanders against our respective 
candidates, I am ready to compare^notes at any moment. Who 
is fabricating them every day against Gen. Pierce ? A com- 
mittee at Washington made up of the worst enemies the south 
ever had. From this great laboratory of falsehood and lies, 
they are sent forth north or south as they may best affect the 
public mind. Falsehood, perjury and forgery are doing hourly 
their infamous work. The charge of cowardice before the 
enemy and in the social circle had its brief career, no doubt 
misleading thousands, but now, when the refutation and recan- 
tation can hardly be expected to overtake the original slander, 
they are freely withdrawn. But, sir, detraction is so common 
that I will not dwell upon it. My time is nearly out, and I 
wish to make an appeal to my whig brethren in relation to the 
coining election. I do not ask them to vote for Gen. Pierce, 
although it would not break one single tie that holds you to the 



ON THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 291 

wliig party. Gen Scott is not your candidate ; he was not 
nominated by you: nay, he beat you down and prevented you 
from having one. Still I fear that you will hardly adopt the 
nomination of Gen. Pierce. You ought to do it under the 
circumstances of the case, but still, I will not insist upon that. 
I only ask that you will stand off and let us fight this abolition 
battle alone. We will fight it successfully — we will save your 
property as well as our own. I pray you not to throw your 
weight and power against us. We cannot conquer you and 
the abolitionists both. You ought not to expect us to do it, and 
if you thought the danger as great as we do, you certainly 
wouldnot require it. That we do not over-estimate the danger 
look to the opinions and actions of your own party. Gentry 
and Williams are as wise and careful of your rights as Gov. 
Jones and W. T. Haskell — Epriam H. Foster and Francis B. 
Fogg, have as much sagacity to see danger as any other men 
whatsoever in your party. So have Dr. Shelby, Dr. McNairy, 
Mr. Whiteside and others that mightbe named. If these wise 
men of your own household were here to-day addressing you 
as I am doing, they would make the same appeal which I now 
do. They would say, we are whigs, the oldest in the State, but 
this election does not turn upon whiggery and democracy. It 
turns upon your right of property in slaves, under the Consti- 
tution, nine hundred millions in amount; it turns upon the 
preservation of that property, and the future peace and repose 
of fifteen States of the Union, and we cannot, and will not 
support Gen. Scott. When whig questions shall again arise, 
we shall be whigs again, but now we go for the preservation of 
the Union and of our rights under the Constitution. 



SPEECH 

On the Progress of the United States and on the Shivery Question. 
Delivered at Odd Fellows' Hall, (Nashville, Tenn.,) for the 
benefit of the Orphan Asylum, by Ex-Gov. A. V. Brown, 
in 1850. 



It is now just three quarters of a century since the United 
States proclaimed her determination to take her place amongst 
the independent nations of the earth. It was a high and bold 
resolve, so full of peril that it drew tears from the interpid 
patriots who signed the ever memorable declaration. It star- 
tled the mother country and astonished the other nations of 
the old world. It was a contest of youth against matured 
and hardened manhood ; of a weak and scattered people 
against the most formidable and powerful nation on the globe. 
Without money, without an army, with scarcely a single ship 
of war on the ocean, without even entire unanimity of senti- 
ment amongst her own people, she fearlessly engaged in the 
struggle, resolved to be free, or to perish in the attempt. 

A cause so just and an example so heroic, could not fail soon 
to attract the favor and sympathy of mankind. France, partly 
from hereditary hatred to England, but mainly from the ger- 
minating seeds of her own subsequent revolution, tendered to 
the young Republic her auspicious and powerful assistance- 
For seven years she maintained the long and dubious cont< -i. 
History has faithfully recorded the consummate skill of her 



ON THE PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



293 



generals, the heroic valor of her soldiery, and the patriotic sac- 
rifices of her gallant people. 

At last, crowned with success, with her liberties firmly 
established and their acknowledgment extorted from her op- 
pressor, she stood forth the wonder of the age, the admiration 
of the world ! 

But whatever of skill or of valor she had exhibited in the 
war. was far outshone by the wisdom she displayed in the form 
of government which she subsequently devised and adopted. 
She summoned her wise men throughout all her borders to 
come up to the great work of devising a system which should 
be worthy of the mighty struggle through which she had passed, 
and of the gallant people who had nobly sustained it. They 
came. Washington came; Benjamin Franklin came; old 
Roger Sherman came; James Madison came; I!utledge and 
the Pinckneys came ; and many others whose names and 
fame have long been identified with her highest glory and re- 
nown. When the great work of forming her Constitution was 
completed, it was transmitted to Congress by George Washing- 
ton, who had presided over its formation, accompanied by a 
letter, which, like his farewell address, ought to be forever pre- 
served, and as often referred to for lessons of wisdom and pa- 
triotic devotion to the Constitution and the Union. I will not 
withhold on the present occasion the following impressive ex- 
tract : " In all our deliberations we kept steadily in our view 
that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true 
American, the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved 
our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. 
This important consideration, seriously and deeply impressed 
on our minds, led each State in convention to be less rigid on 
points of inferior magnitude than might have been otherwise 
expected ; and thus the Constitution which we now present is 
the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and 
concession, which the peculiarity of our political situation 
rendered indispensable. * * * That it may promote the 
lasting welfare of that country so dear to us all, and secure her 
freedom and happiness, is our most ardent wish." 

This noble monument of human wisdom was subsequently 
adopted by the States, It became our Constitution, our Union, 



294 



CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 



our system of federal government. They are not separate 
and distinct things. They are one, indivisible and identical. 
Whoever has read the one has read the other. Whoever obeys 
one, obeys the other. Whoever dissolves the one, dissolves 
the other. As the old articles of confederation formed and 
were the Union, so the new Constitution became and is a more 
perfect Union. Underit, our country has thus far run a career 
of prosperity unparalleled in the history of nations. Triumph- 
ant in two wars since its adoption, especially brilliant and in- 
vincible in the last one, she has placed her military renown 
above all cavil and beyond the reach of all competition. In 
peace, in all the arts and sciences, which bless and adorn such 
a condition, she has been no less an object of admiration and 
praise. From three millions, her population has grown up to 
more than twenty millions. From thirteen original States we 
have become a confederacy of thirty republics, and can scarcely 
announce the number until another and another are added to 
the glittering and gorgeous galaxy. They come from every 
part of this wide spread continent; from the lakes of the north; 
from the shores of the Gulf or the distant regions of California, 
glittering with her goid and sparkling with her diamonds. Her 
wide spread commerce is seen floating on every sea, penetra- 
ting every climate and country, and protected by a navy which 
has carried her name and her fame to every part of the habita- 
ble globe. Success in agricultural pursuits has crowned with 
plenty the labors of her own people, and carried abundance and 
joy to the famishing population of the old world. In her inter- 
nal improvements; her canals ; her railroads ; her telegraphic 
lines ; the removal of obstructions from her majestic rivers, she 
has exhibited the elements of a great and prosperous people. 
But above all, she has become " the desire of all nations," in 
the freedom of her institutions, the justice and equality of her 
laws, and the wisdom and impartiality with which they are ad- 
ministered. In fine, her past history and progress is a bright 
and almost magic picture on which the civilized nations 
are now gazing with intense admiration and delight. Most 
willingly would I hold that picture up to your gaze ; to your ad- 
miration ; to your own patriotic pride and just exultation ; but 
a sterner and far less agreeable duty lies before me. 



ON THE PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 295 

In the midst of this unparalleled progress, when we are but 
midway between the morning and high noon of our prosperity, 
the gloomy shadows of sectional discontent come stealing over 
and around us, deepening and darkening as they come. A dread 
eclipse seems to be approaching. Amid the gathering gloom, 
the cry is heard, that the Constitution, the Union, our confede- 
rate system is in danger. From the east and the west, from 
the north and the south, the messages of State Governors, the 
resolutions of State legislatures and the solemn deliberations 
of large popular assemblies, confirm the astounding and almost 
incredible annunciation. Panic stricken and amazed, we turn 
with patriotic instinct to the centre of our political system ; to 
the city which bears the name of the illustrious father of his coun- 
try; we turn to it for light, and peace, and safety. But no 
light is to be seen gleaming from her council chambers. They 
have all been put out. For weeks and months, no speaker ; 
no clerks; no sergeant-at-arms ; no chaplain; no organization 
for the public good, but perpetual readiness for agitation and 
mischief. Nearly all, but not all of those great and good men 
who used to be there from the north to perfect, adorn and per- 
petuate our system of government, have retired from the thea- 
tre of action or have been superseded by men whose sole de- 
light seems to be, day after day, and night after night, amid 
the fire and smoke and suffocation of a wild fanaticism, to 
deal blow after blow upon the Constitution, until the Union 
shall crumble to ruins around them. Let us now pause and 
look at the proposed invasions of that heretofore consecrated 
instrument. i 

The first one is, that the clause allowing the representation 
of three-fifths of the slaves, shall be expunged, obliterated 
from the Constitution. It is a clause which had long been de- 
bated in the convention. At that period slavery existed in 
several of the northern as well as the southern States. But in 
the spirit of amity and of mutual forbearance and concession, 
the difficulty was compromised ; and Massachusetts and Vir- 
ginia, Connecticut and Georgia walked harmoniously into the 
Union, co-equals in every respect, having compromised this 
and all other points of difference, as the basis and principle of 
representation. Cannot Massachusetts now consent to do 



296 



CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 



what Massachusetts was content to do then? Is the Connec- 
ticut of to-day unwilling to stand to the compact ratified by 
the Connecticut of 1787 ? If not, on whose head shall fall the 
blame of destroying that compact ? The south cannot afford 
voluntarily to submit to a great change like this. She is al- 
ready in a vast and increasing minority : her contemplated 
exclusion from the territories of the United States would soon 
reduce her so low in the scale of insignificance as to sink her 
on every invasion of her rights, far below the protection of even 
a Presidential veto. When that shall have been done, who 
can doubt that the feeble barriers, which are now admitted to 
forbid interference with slavery in the States, will all be bro- 
ken down and the dark spirit of murder and insurrection stalk 
mad, riotous and bloody through the land. To ask her volun- 
tarily to make this change is but an invitation to suicide ; to 
force it upon her by numerical power is to break and dissolve 
the Constitution ; to break and dissolve the Union; to break 
and dissolve the federal government ; no matter which of these 
forms of expression may be adopted. In such an act the south 
would stand passive, and faithful to the original compact; the 
north would be active and destructive of it. It may be said 
that the Constitution expressly provides for its own amend- 
ment, and therefore no alteration can be destructive of it. 
But let it be remembered that it was to be amended as it was 
formed, in the spirit of amity and mutual concession; not of 
hostile and degrading aggression. To amend by improving 
not by destroying those guarantees of life and property, with- 
out which we know it never would have been adopted. 

Look next to the abolition of slavery in the District, of Col- 
umbia, in the forts, arsenals, navy-yards, and other public es- 
tablishments of the United States. What adequate induce- 
ment can the north have to raise all this clamor for years, 
about a little district, ten miles square, (now much less.) and 
; few inconsiderable spots and places thinly scattered over the 
land, scarcely larger than a mustard seed when compared to 
the vast body of the slave-holding region ? Would a micro- 
scopic concession like this appease a conscience, wounded and 
lacerated by the sin of slavery? If abolished in these, it 
would be but the removal of one grain of sand from the beach — 



ON THE PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 297 

the withdrawal of but one drop from the vast ocean of alleged 
national guilt. But small as it might seem to be, the south 
cannot safely submit to abolition even here. How could 
Maryland, how could Virginia submit to it ? When the Dis- 
trict of Columbia should have become a city of refuge for the 
slaves of the surrounding country, what earthly power could 
prevent the chivalrous sons of Virginia and Maryland from as- 
serting their rights and reclaiming their property ? Members 
of Congress, who now shudder with horror at reading in some 
metropolitan newspaper, the advertisement of some negro 
slave for sale, might then be doomed to witness many a scene 
of strife, and to behold many a wounded captive borne oft" in 
chains, who, without his officious legislation, would have re- 
mained contented at home, eating the same kind of food, re- 
posing through the same hours of the night, and working side 
by side with the master through the day, in the same fields, 
where both had been reared, in kind and sometimes affectionate 
regard for each other. 

Look next to another of these aggressions on the rights of 
the south, which proposes under the pretext of regulating com- 
merce among the States, that no slave, for no purpose, and 
under no circumstances whatever, shall be carried by his law- 
ful owner, from one slave-holding State to another. That 
where slavery now is, there it shall forever remain, until by its 
own increase, it shall outnumber the opposite race, and thus 
by the united combination of causes — the fears of the master, 
the diminution in value, and the exhausted condition of the 
soil, the final purposes of fanaticism, whatever they may be, 
shall be accomplished. For this extraordinary proposition no 
apology can he offered ; for it is established by universal ob- 
servation, that if you give to slavery but scope and compass, 
if you permit it to be dilated over ample space, it loses much 
of that oppression which even a morbid humanity could de- 
plore. In many regions of the south, I hesitate not to declare 
that in point of care and anxiety — in point of abundance of 
food and raiment — of healthful but humble habitation, the 
slave is but little distinguished from the master. 

Before we further pursue this enumeration of our wrongs 
permit me to say, that I do not include the whole north as en- 



298 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

gaged in this crusade against us. Whilst we fear that we can 
exempt no large classes and no large portions of any party, 
1 freely admit many individual exceptions that challenge our 
highest admiration and gratitude — men who stand forth among 
the brightest ornaments of our age and country. 

The last in the series of aggressions to which I shall call 
your attention, is that one commonly called the Wilmot pro- 
viso, by which Congress is called upon to prohibit every slave- 
holder from removing with his slaves to the territory lately ac- 
quired from Mexico — a territory as large as the old thirteen 
States originally composing the Union — a territory won by the 
common valor, and paid for out of the common treasury of the 
nation. Simply to state the proposition is to show its enor- 
mity. Even the brigand will make honorable divisions of the 
spoils among all who went willingly and bore themselves va- 
liantly in the expedition of rapine and plunder. Will proud 
and independent States do less with their compeers in an ex- 
pedition of honor, and duty, and patriotism? If disposed to 
taunt, I might demand to know if the north, a large portion 
of it at least, did go willingly ? Whether she did not denounce 
the expedition as wicked and unjust, and the acqusition barren 
and worthless? How then is it that she shall demand the 
lion's share of it to herself ? Even after it had been acquired, 
many there were ready to abandon it and surrender it back 
to what they were pleased to term a weak and helpless and 
innocent people — more willing then to give all to Mexico, than 
they now are one-half of it to their own countrymen. And 
what has the south ever done to merit such exclusion from the 
common soil, the common property of the nation ? Trace her 
history — in peace and in war — on every battle-field, and in 
every council-chamber, she has been true and faithful to all her 
engagements to the north. Observe her more especially in 
the contest, by which that very territory was acquired from 
which she is now to be excluded. Both of your great com- 
manders were from the south. Many subordinate generals, 
their " kindred thunderbolts in war," were also from the south. 
An equal number — nay, a majority of your invincible soldiery 
were from the south. Why should they be permited to gather 
laurels from Palo Alto to Bnena Yista — from Vera Cruz to the 



OX THE PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 299 

Mexican capital, and then, when every province had been sub- 
dued, and your flag was proudly waving over the halls of the 
Montezmas, why should they be required to bow their heads, 
and meekly to retire — excluded — driven out from the country 
moistened with their blood, and immortalized by their valor. 
Could the north point me to " the book and page" — to the verj" 
clause of the Constitution which would expressly warrant an 
exclusion so unequal, and so unjust, I would not yet believe 
that a land that bears upon her bosom the proud and lofty 
monument of Bunker Hill, would ever perpetrate so foul — so 
incomprehensibly monstrous deed. But that book— that page — 
that clause can never be shown. It is vain to point us to that 
provision of the Constitution which declares that, " Congress 
shall have power to dispose of, and make rules and regula- 
tions respecting the territory or other property belonging to 
the United States." Territory means the land — the soil — 
which belonged to her. The property which she might have 
need to dispose of. To dispose of — to sell her territory or pub- 
lic lands, rules and regulations might and would become ne- 
cessary : they must be surveyed. The size and form of her 
surveys, the price which should be demanded for them, the lo- 
cation of the offices where the same shall be disposed of, were 
all among the " rules and regulations" contemplated by this 
section. It did not speak of political associations or govern- 
ments under that term. The exclusion of every such con- 
clusion is to be found in the after declaration " that nothing 
in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any 
claims of the United States, or any particular State." Under 
this clause, however, the United States may entirely prevent 
the formation of political associations or governments upon 
her territory or public lands. She may exclude the settlement 
of them altogether. She may choose to reserve them for after 
times or to hold them as uninhabited barriers between herself 
and some co-terminous nation. If such should not be her policy 
she may permit and invite their settlement with a view to politi- 
cal organization. But because that territory is hers, she may 
prescribe the description of persons, whether unnaturalized 
foreigners or the citizens of the United States, who may in- 
habit it. She may discriminate against the former on the 



300 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

great principles of self-defence against the formation of an 
organized government of foreign subjects on her own soil, 
within her own boundaries, hostile in sentiment, and danger- 
ous to her republican form of government. Against and 
amongst her own people, she can make no such discrimination, 
because neither founded on necessity, consistent with the com- 
munity of property, nor warranted by that perfect equality of 
rights secured to the people of the States by the Constitution. 
For the same reason, (the right of property) she may desig- 
nate the boundaries within which such political associations may 
be formed. The land, the soil, the territory is her own, and she 
may therefore well determine such a question according to her 
own will and pleasure. All other questions preliminary to 
political organization and to subsequent application for ad- 
mission into the Union, acted on by Congress, must be the 
result of strict necessity or of acquiescence on part of the peo- 
ple for mutual accommodation and convenience; all these ques- 
tions relate chiefly to mere modes of action and sink into com- 
parative insignificance in this discussion. But the great prin- 
ciple of self government inherent in every people, and the 
guarded and limited powers granted to the general govern- 
ment, would clearly indicate to my mind, that whatever Con- 
gress has done or may hereafter do in reference to introducing 
measures preliminary to the organization of territorial govern- 
ments, she ought never to enter upon direct and immediate leg- 
islation for them. But my purpose is not here to discuss the 
Constitutional questions involved in the present contest be- 
tween the north and the south. This is neither the time nor the 
occasion. I therefore pass to another, and would solemnly and 
earnestly enquire what the north can expecttogainby all these 
high and imperious demands ! Does she expect thereby to 
wipe out the stain of what she is pleased to call the national 
sin of slavery ? Why slavery has no nationality ! It is pure- 
ly a local and sectional institution. Whatever of sin may 
be ascribed to it can never attach in any degree to the north, 
until we obliterate the States and become one vast consoli- 
dated government. If it be replied that whilst this is true as 
to slavery in the States, yet the territory of the United States 
is national and the introduction of slavery there would be a 



ON THE PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 301 

national transgression — well, we have agreed to set bounds to 
this imputed sin, by the compromise of the Constitution, by the 
Missouri compromise, by the Texas compromise. And even 
under these we ask the north to give no affirmative sanction to 
the sin or other evils of slavery. All we require of her is to 
take no action on the subject. Will not this do them ? It did 
the venerable men of the north sixty years ago. It satisfied 
them thirty years ago when Missouri came into the Union. 
Why not now ? Let them remember too, that whether they 
admit slavery upon one foot of our territory or not, cannot af- 
fect the question of its sinfulness in the slightest degree. 
Admit slavery to-morrow into every territory north and south 
of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, and you add not a 
single one to the number. Exclude them, and you make their 
number not a single one the less. The aggregate amount of 
sin and of suffering, as you regard it, will therefore remain 
the same whether you fail or succeed in this notable scheme of 
conscientious purgation. 

Let me further enquire of the north, when she has succeed- 
ed in all her proposed measures, what she expects to accom- 
plish for the relief of " the poor enslaved and down-trodden 
sons of Africa ?" You would shake a continent from the cen- 
tre to its circumference for their relief. You would deal blow 
after blow on the Constitution, until you would make the Union 
reel and stagger like a falling and dying man, to lighten their 
yoke and loosen their chains ; and what, I demand to know, is 
likely to be your successs ? Deluded by your perpetual agita- 
tions, they become gloomy and discontented with their lot. 
Suspicion watches every look and refers every action to some 
settled purpose of intended insurrection. If outbreaks ensue, 
destitute of arms, and ignorant of their use if they had any, 
with no concert of action, and no leader to conduct them, they 
would soon be dispersed, or shot down in the fields and the 
highways like so many wild beasts of the forest. Thus they 
would perish; by famine, by the sword, by the halter; and 
dying, would heap curses on those who had disturbed them in 
their former contentment and repose. But let us suppose 
that their efforts should be crowned with success so far as to 
secure their escape from their farther bondage. Where shall 



302 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

they go ? who will receive them ? Will the north ? Never ! 
Notified of their approach, the north would meet them on the 
border, drive them back, or strew the earth with their dead 
bodies. Would the north ever consent to pay for them and 
thus secure their final and certain emancipation ? Never 1 
Would she consent to pay even the expenses of their trans- 
portation to the shores of their native country ? Never ! Would 
she even allot to them a home and a resting place on the 
banks of the distant Oregon or the plains of the Sacramento ? 
No never — especially now, when gold is washed in every river 
and sparkles on the summit of every mountain. I again ask, 
what is to become of them ? Excited to rebellion but too 
weak to conquer ; encouraged to fly and yet find no people, 
no country willing to receive them ! Would to God that I 
could send my voice to-night into every town and village and 
farm house of the north. I would say, let this people alone. 
They are now comparatively contented and happy. They 
are well clothed, well housed, and well fed. In sickness, the 
best physicians are called to their bed sides and in health they 
are not compelled to work as hard as the day-laborers of 
your own region You cannot, you do not know how to better 
their condition. Let them alone, until God in His mercy to 
the master as well as the slave shall point out the way of their 
deliverance. 

If then even the slave is to become loser by your injudi- 
cious if not officious benevolence, look a little further and see if 
you may not become a loser yourselves by it. Look to the fol- 
lowing estimates of your annual profits growing out of your 
connection with the south ; estimates founded on the most 
reliable data :* 

Freights of Northern shipping on Southern produce, - - $40,1S6,000 
Profits derived on imports at the North on Southern account, 9,000,000 

Profits of exchange operations, 1,000,000 

Profits of Northern manufactures sold at the South, - - - 22,250,000 
Profits of western produce descending the Mississippi, - - 10,000,000 
Profits of Northern capital employed at the South, .... 6,000,000 



$88,436,000 



*See the January Number of The Democratic Review for 1S50. 



ON THE PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 303 

Eighty- eight millions of profits annually poured into the lap of 
the north by its connection with the south ! How much of these 
may you not lose, nay, must you not lose by dissolving your 
connection with us. With the annexation of Texas, the last 
acre of the cotton growing region passed beneath the wing of 
the Eagle, and changed for all time to come the destinies of 
the southern States. 

England, France, and the northern States, have all become 
competitors and rivals for her great staple, which in the lan- 
guage of an able and eloquent writer in one of our periodicals 
has been spun into a web that binds the commercial world to 
southern interests. The cotton growing experiments in India 
have failed, the blundering emancipation policy of England in 
her West Indies has failed, and the southern States are now 
sole possessors of a staple on which half the manufacturing 
and commercial interests of the world depend. 

But whilst the south is conscious of the vantage ground 
which she occupies, she is neither insensible nor indifferent to 
the great interests of the north. She turns not a spindle, she 
weaves not a woof, she sails not a ship in which the south does 
not feel that she has a just degree of national pride and exul- 
tation. Her navigation and manufacturing interest can never 
become antagonistic to the south. Antagonism must come 
from England ; the north already manufactures more than half 
a million of our cotton bales; England the greater portion of 
the balance. Her proximity to the place of production ; the 
abundance and cheapness of her provisions, and above all her 
fraternal and national connection with the south, will enable 
her to achieve successive victories over her transatlantic rival, 
at which none will more heartily rejoice than her southern 
brethren. 

But that connection must be fraternal. What is the Union 

worth, when the spirit of amity and concord has departed from 

it ? This agitation of the slavery question is so unfraternal 

that the south has never seen the day when she would not 

rather have had a foreign enemy thundering on her border> 

than to have this slavery question under annual discussion in 

Congress. To the north it brought no danger; your families 

were safely housed and slumbering in peace and security, far 
21 



304 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

away from the storm that was howling in the distance. Not 
so the south. For the last few years not a fire-bell has been 
rung at midnight in our cities, which did not strike a pang to 
the heart and make the mother clasp the sleeping infant closer 
to her bosom. 

I have yet another question to submit to the north on this 
great subject, the counterpart of the question of loss which 
we have just been considering. What do you expect to gain 
for yourselves by pressing these measures upon the south ? 
Not political power and ascendency. You have acquired 
these already. That was the high stake, for which some of 
your ambitious statesmen have been playing for nearly half a 
century. I do not say they have had no southern competitors. 
But the game has been played out and the south has lost it. 
The government is yours ; all its vast patronage is yours ; the 
President and all the high offices of State belong to you, when- 
ever you choose to have them. The south knows that the scep- 
tre has departed from her ; nay, that she handed it over to 
you herself, when Virginia ceded to you with a noble and pa- 
triotic generosity her northwestern possessions. Without Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, and I believe a portion of Michigan, where 
would be now, and for all time to come, the preponderance of 
political power? The sun in one entire revolution aroand this 
earth, no where shines on a finer region than was freely sur- 
rendered to you by " the mother of Presidents and of States." 
It was the gift of the south to the north. The magnificence of 
that gift, if it shall generate no arrogance in the possessor, can 
never bring regret to the generous bosom of the muni- 
ficent donor. If ambition and power and patronage be no 
longer the objects of your pursuit, what can you expect to gain 
by further agitations ? Nothing. I repeat nothing but aliena- 
ted affections; a violated Constitution; a broken, shattered 
Union, and with these the taunts and jeers of exulting mon- 
archy, and the indignant frowns of the friends of liberty all 
over the world. Dream not that the odium of dissolving this 
glorious Union, still stretching like the rainbow of hope and of 
promise over the continent, shall ever be cast on the States of 
the south. That shall be your work, not theirs. The dissolu- 
tion of the Union is nothing but the destruction of the Consti- 



ON THE PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 305 

tution. The destruction of the Constitution is completed, when 
your measures of aggression are accomplished. The south 
loves the Union. She will cling to it to the last, and when one 
violation of the Constitution after another shall have destroyed 
it, she may well exclaim, " It was not I that did it." When 
the great crisis shall come and crash after crash shall announce 
the downfall of the republic, the world will be at no loss to 
know what barbarian hand struck the fatal blow. Calm, erect, 
but sorrowful, the south will be seen standing amid the ruins, 
holding to her bosom the farewell address of the sainted Wash- 
ington, and appealing to Heaven to attest her fidelity to its 
sacred injunctions. 

In this dark hour of peril and danger, what does it become 
the duty of the south to do for the preservation of her rights ? 
If the humblest of her sons were permitted to advise, he would 
say to her, prepare, by all the means that wisdom can devise 
and patriotism approve, prepare for the coming tempest. Its 
low mutterings are no longer to be heard in the distance. It is 
already upon you and its thunders are bursting peal after 
peal over your head. Every gale that sweeps to you from the 
capital, bears upon its wings the news of renewed agita- 
tion and increasing excitement. You cannot tell on what day 
nor in what hour that glorious flag which waves over the delib- 
erations of Congress, the proud emblem of our Union and 
our power, may be stricken down, in token that fanaticism and 
ambition have accomplished their work, and that the days of 
the republic have been numbered. What then ! what then ? 
Go ask the sainted spirit of Washington ; go ask the genius of 
Liberty as she stretches her wings to take her everlasting flight 
from our country. Not yet, not yet — stay ! stay ! all is not 
lost. See! our noble flag again re -appears I Some bold and 
patriotic hand has lifted up and restored it, and the light of 
hope is once more beaming from the dome of our capitol. 

Let us never despair of the republic. God never conducted 
our fathers through so many trials and dangers ; he never in- 
spired them to build up so great and so excellent a system of 
government, to permit their degenerate sons so soon to destroy 
it. The north will yet recede ; a voice which she has long 
known and so often followed, has already proclaimed that she 



30G CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES, 

can and ought to recede. When she shall further hear, as hear 
she must, that the south can never submit ; that come what 
may, she never can and never will submit, that her peace, her 
safety, her honor, her very existence, all forbid it: when the 
north shall moreover remember that all the evils of which she 
complains were inherited by us from her and from our British 
ancestors, without our consent and against our earnest entrea- 
ties, she must pause, she must recede. Let us cherish this 
hope of returning magnanimity and justice. We have seen 
the noble vessel of state outride many a storm. Despair 
can only increase her danger in the present one. Let us hope 
and cheer her to the last. 

" Thou too, sail on, O ship of State 
Sail on, O Union strong and great ! 
Humanity with all its fears, 
With all the hopes of future years, 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 
We know what master laid thy keel, 
What workman wrought thy ribs of steel, 
Who made each mast and sail and rope, 
What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 
In what a forge and what a heat 
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope." 



SPEECH 

Of Ex-Gov. Aaron V. Brown, in the Second Session of the 
Southern Convention, on the Resolution Reported Saturday, 
November 15th, 1850. 



Mr. President : — Since our adjournment in June last, Con- 
gress has acted on all the great and exciting subjects which 
had called this convention together. Our business now is, to ex- 
amine how far that action has been or ought to be satisfactory 
to the south. I have examined the bills, with the strongest 
predisposition to be pleased and satisfied with them. I am 
proud of my country — proud of her institutions — proud of her 
brilliant and triumphant career. I am, therefore, painfully 
anxious that nothing should occur to retard her progress or to 
obscure her bright and glorious future. But, sir, I have tried 
in vain to be convinced that the south has received any 
thing like justice at the hands of the north. In every effort my 
mind stands baffled and rebuked in the vain attempt. 

I begin, sir, with the admission of California. I waive all 
irregularity in her application — all imputed Executive dicta- 
tion — all doubts about the citizenship of those who partici- 
pated in the formation of her constitution. Still I am com- 
pelled to demand, why was she permitted to come in with all 
this boundless extent of country ? It was not necessary to her 
people ; on the contrary, we know that it was highly inconve- 
nient to them. Why, then, was it done ? That man must be 



308 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

blind who does not see, and know, and feel that it was done 
for the sole purpose of excluding the south forever from the 
shores of the Pacific. The north had said that she should be 
excluded. The Wilmot proviso was the infamous instrument 
selected for the purpose. The people of California, forgetting 
for the moment how much they stood indebted to southern valor 
and southern counsels for their very existence, letthemselves to 
the inglorious deed. Congress, byrejecting every proposition to 
curtail her enormous boundary, ratified and confirmed it ; and 
thus the great work of our exclusion was accomplished. Re- 
member, sir, I am not complaining that California was admit- 
ted as a State : nor am I objecting to any size and boundary 
which the wants and necessities of her people might demand. 
My precise objection is, that she was let in with an extent of 
boundary which she did not need and which she did not expect 
or desire to retain, and which, in reality, she is only holding 
over against the south, for the future benefit of the freesoil 
States of the north. Congress ought to have said, " Take of 
the common territory what you need — take largely and freely ; 
but you shall not take all." Now, sir, if Congress refused to 
say this, with the view of depriving the south of her fair and 
just proportion of this common fund, the device, though inge- 
nious, was nevertheless a flagrant violation of the Constitu- 
tion. 

So much as to the admission of California into the Union. 
What of Utah and New Mexico, embracing all the balance 
of the territory ? They have been organized into territorial 
governments, but with no clause repealing any laws or ordi- 
nances of Mexico abolishing slavery which may be in force in 
them. For the want of such a clause, I maintain that they 
are as effectually lost to the south as if they had been sunken 
by an earthquake. If those laws and ordinances are in force, 
then, of course, they are lost. But I maintain that if it be 
only doubtful whether they are in force or not, that very doubt 
is as fatal to the south as the Wilmot proviso. No southern 
man will dare to take his property there until that doubt is 
removed. Congress ought to have removed it. Her own dis- 
cussions had started it, and the master minds of that body had 
fixed and confirmed it. If her object really was to open those 



ON THE PASSAGE OF THE COMPROMISE. 309 

countries equally and fairly to all the citizens of all the States, 
she should have added the following section : " Be it enacted, 
that all laws and parts of laws passed by Mexico, which may 
be in force in said territories in relation to slavery, be, and the 
same are hereby repealed." Mr. President, this short but ex- 
pressive sentence would have at once calmed the fears and 
discontents of the south. The clouds which lowered so darkly 
over her horizon would have been dispelled, and the rainbow 
of hope and confidence would have shone with renewed bright- 
ness and glory. But no : the amendment was offered and 
voted down, and the south doomed to submit — not to the Con- 
stitution, but to Mexican laws if they existed, or to stay away, 
from a well grounded apprehension that they might exist. Sir, 
that was the fatal vote that prostrated the south in those terri- 
tories. She was the equal of the other States. She had as much 
right to enter there with her property as they had with theirs. 
But Congress leaves an old Mexican ordinance, or the well 
grounded fear of it, to do that which Mexican bayonetd 
could never do : to drive every southern man away from 
the country. 

And what are the explanations and apologies for this extra- 
ordinary vote when given by southern men ? It is first alleged 
that these Mexican laws are not in fact in force, and then it is 
gravely insisted that you cannot repeal what is not in force! — 
that you cannot repeal a nonentity ! In passing a new law, how 
often does the legislator find himself in doubt as to how many 
of the old laws may be in conflict with it? or, how often does he 
doubt of what the opinions of the judges might be on the sub- 
ject ? and how sure is he in either case, to give certainty and 
force to the new enactment, to declare " that all laws and 
parts of laws which may be inconsistent with it shall be repeal- 
ed ?" No man can give dignity or respectability to such a 
sophistry, and I dismiss it, in order to notice another. It is said 
that such a repeal of the Mexican laws would be equivalent to 
the establishment of slavery in those territories, which Congress 
cannot and ought not have done. ' What ! to repeal " all laws 
and parts of laws" in relation to slavery equivalent to the es- 
tablishment of it? Directly the reverse — it leaves the whole 
country, rasa tabula, a mere blank — with nothing for or against 



310 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

slavery. What then ? Why, it must remain forever unestab- 
lished, unless Congress shall interfere and establish it. This 
is forbidden by the great doctrine of non-intervention. What 
then ? It must remain so unestablished until the territorial 
legislatures establish it. The universal opinion has been (at 
least until very lately,) that territorial legislatures had no such 
power. What, then, becomes of slavery in these territories, the 
common property of the States, during the interval of the repeal 
of the Mexican laws and the time when they form a State Con- 
stitution, preparatory to admission into the Union ? During all 
this time the country is a mere blank, with nothing for or against 
its establishment. It is subject to the Constitution of the 
United States alone. If that will protect the southern man's 
property there, he is content. If it will not, he is content. lie 
invokes no intervention of Congress, save to set aside the pre- 
vious intervention of Mexico. When that is done he has an 
open field and a fair chance under the Constitution. 

But, sir, another argument is made, that the doctrine of non- 
intervention forbade this repeal of the Mexican laws and or- 
dinances. I pretend to understand something of this doctrine. 
I have borne its banner through three hard fought politicial 
wars. I have unfurled it in every valley and planted it on 
nearly every mountain top of Tennessee. What was that 
doctrine ? Non-intervention by anybody and every body — 
between the people and their right to settle the question of 
slavery when forming their State Constitution. Non-interven- 
tion by Congress, non-intervention by Mexico, non-interven- 
tion by any body and every body — that was the Polk, the Cass, 
the democratic doctrine, if you please. What an absurdity ! 
To hold on with a death-grasp to non-intervention by Congress, 
and at the same moment to advocate intervention by Mexico ! 
Intervention by Mexico cleaves your rights to the earth, as 
certainly as intervention by Congress. Why all this clamor 
against the Wilmot proviso ? Why this bold and daring de- 
claration that yon would resist that at all hazards and to the 
last extremity, if, after all, tnese old Mexican ordinances were 
to remain unrepealed, the only things which American valor 
could not subdue in Mexico ! 

Mr. Clay, Gen. Cass, Mr. Webster, and many others whose 



ON THE PASSAGE OF THE COMPROMISE. 311 

names may well stand in proud association with theirs, long 
since told you that these ordinances were in force. If you 
did not mean to open that country to the south, by repealing 
them, why did you not surrender at once and say that the 
south never could and never ought to get any portion of it ? 
Sir, I put the question to this convention, I put it to the good 
sense of mankind, whether great Constitutional rights ought 
ever to he sacrificed by holding to a mere abridgement of the 
doctrine of non-intervention, too narrow and contracted for 
their protection ? 

Mr. President : In the progress of this dispute about our 
territorial possessions, we have lost too much, by not better un- 
derstanding this doctrine of non-intervention. At our last 
session we maintained this doctrine in its fullest, broadest 
sense. In ten resolutions we maintained it — maintained it 
as to the whole country. But, sir, after exhausting every 
argument and making every appeal to our northern brethren 
to allow us the full benefit of it, we turned to the contempla- 
tion of the painful fact, whose bitter realization we have 
since experienced — to the fact that there was little or no pro- 
bability that our rights would be fully recognized. Under the 
full belief that they would not, we planted ourselves on the 
former compromises which had been made in critical periods 
of our history. Sir, we were unanimous in favor of the Mis- 
souri compromise line — not one discordant voice was heard 
through the spacious hall of our deliberations. If the Con- 
gress of the United States had responded favorably to that 
voice, all would now have been well with the Republic. Cali- 
fornia would have been in the Union, but with her southern 
boundary on thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes. She would 
then have been larger than Virginia, New York, or Pennsyl- 
vania. The remaining country would have been organized 
into territorial governments, without saying a word about 
slavery — neither admitting it nor rejecting it; but with a re- 
pealing clause of laws which might be in force there abolishing 
slavery. Thus the south and the north would have been 
thrown on an equal footing, leaving it to the Constitution — not 
to Congress — not to the laws of Mexico — to say whether 
slaves should be carried there or not. Ah, if this had been 



312 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

done, what contentedness and peace would have then pervaded 
our once happy country ! Then, indeed, we could have re- 
joiced and started afresh in the career of national greatness 
and glory. But, sir, it was rejected, and the strange story is 
now told us, that it was anti-republican ! Anti-republican to 
abide by the Missouri compromise ! by the Oregon compro- 
mise ! by the T exas compromise ! Take back the incredible 
charge. The last message of James K. Polk to his country- 
men, just before he went down to the tomb, implored them to 
settle this question on the principles of the Missouri compro- 
mise. Take back the charge that he was no republican. 
When Texas was admitted on the compromise line of thirty- 
six degrees thirty minutes, Andrew Jackson was still living, 
and his heart rejoiced to see the noble work accomplished. 
Take back the charge that Andrew Jackson was no republi- 
can. Take back the charge against the hundreds, and thou- 
sands, and tens of thousands, who voted for thirty-six thirty 
in voting for her admission into the Union. Take it back, or 
strifle your shout for Polk and Dallas, and tear down from 
your banner the lone star of Texas. 

It is sometimes declared to be unconstitutional. It was not 
proposed as an ordinary act of Congress but as a compromise 
— a compromise of a disputed question of constitutional con- 
struction. Now, why cannot a disputed construction of the 
Constitution be compromised as well as any other ? Every 
other question, it seems, can be compromised. Even an om- 
nibus-full of all sorts of compromises will do. Yet the Mis- 
souri compromise and the Texas compromise will not do at 
all. And why were they unconstitutional ? Because, it is 
said, they allowed of the intervention of Congress north of 
that line. No, that was not the compromise. The original 
demand of the north was, that Congress should intervene and 
exclude slavery from the whole country north and south of 
thirty-six degrees thirty minutes. Now, the compromise was, 
that Congress should forbear that intervention or exclusion of 
slavery, and leave a part of it for the south — that part was 
south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes : that was the true 
nature of all these compromises ! Now, was it unconstitutional 
for us to save a part when we were otherwise to lose the whole 



ON THE PASSAGE OP TIIE COMPROMISE. 313 

country ? Well, now, after all, let us look to results. Con- 
gress rejected our Missouri compromise, and passed its own 
bills in lieu of it. Which was best for the south ? Ours would 
have saved one-third or more — your bills have lost all — every 
square acre of it. What equivalent, let me now demand, has 
the south received under these bills for the loss and surrender 
of these vast possessions? For California, the key that com- 
mands all the amazing commerce of the Indies ? The fugitive 
slave bill ! For Utah and New Mexico ? The fugitive slave 
bill ! What for the loss of nearly two States proposed to be 
carved out of Texas ? The fugitive slave bill ! Truly this 
fugitive slave bill must be something new and miraculous. No. 
It is not new — for it is only the act of '93 a little amended and 
enlarged; and the act of '93 was nothing but a meagre com- 
pliance with an express provision of the Constitution. But, 
if not new, surely it must restore vast numbers of fugitive 
slaves to their masters, in compensation for the loss of so 
much land ! Restoration ! I believe it is rather the other 
way. Instead of coming home, I believe they are getting 
further off — scampering away m great droves to Canada ! But 
to be serious, what a pass has the country come to, when one 
half of it has to bribe the other, simply to do its duty under 
the Constitution ! The south to give up its half of the coun- 
tries acquired from Mexico, in order to induce the north to 
surrender our fugitives from labor ! What a commentary on 
the fraternal, Constitution-abiding spirit of the north ! But, 
it seems that after giving up all our interest in the Mexican ter- 
ritories, even then, they are not willing to surrender our slaves. 
They seem determined to take our lands and keep our ne- 
groes too ! 

But, I admit these territories have not been lost by the instru- 
mentality of the Wilmot proviso. That was one of her ad- 
vanced or outer works which the north concluded to abandon, 
because the south, the whole south, had vowed they should be 
carried, at all hazards and to the last extremity. With an adroit- 
ness which has distinguished all her movements on these slav- 
ry questions, she retired from the Wilmot and entrenched her- 
self behind the Mexican fortress ; and the south either had not 
the courage to attack her there, or vainly imagined that she 



S 14 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

had retreated from the field and given up the contest. No, sir, 
she has not retreated — there she stood undislodged, and there 
she yet stands, sole mistress of every province. California is 
hers — Utah is hers — New Mexico is hers : — all the flocks and 
herds in their teeming valleys — the gold that glitters in their 
rivers — the diamonds that sparkle in their mountains — must 
now be hers, and the poor deluded and defrauded south has 
nothing left but the sad rememberance that this mighty domain 
was subdued by the valor of her gallant but now rejected peo- 
ple. Even the graves of those who died in the conflict are no 
longer ours — they have passed over into the possession of those 
who felt no sympathy in their fall, and who will never deck 
the green sod that now covers them. Pardon me, sir, for so 
often referring to our exclusion. I wish that great fact to 
stand out in bold relief, like the summit of some lofty mountain 
overpeering all others, that the south has been excluded — 
driven out from it. The north said she should be, and she has 
been, and there is the end of it. 

And is it for this that we have been called upon to rejoice! 
To kindle bonfires in the streets ! Was it for this that the 
booming of cannon has been heard amid the stillness of mid- 
night ! Sir, let others rejoice if they can ; let them sound the 
trumpet and ring the bells ; let them make the hoarse artillery 
to speak ; but, for my single self, I cannot rejoice. My 
heart is too sad and sorrowful. It would break sooner than 
rejoice. 

Mr. President, there is another thing this heart of mine will 
never do. It will never grow cold towards those southern 
friends who may have felt it their duty to vote for any of those 
territorial bills, which I have disapproved. I know too well 
their devotion to the Constitution — to the Union — to the south. 
They have done what they believed to be best under all the 
trying circumstances of the case, and I hail and welcome 
them home, with unabated confidence and friendship. Com- 
pelled to cast their votes amid the fire, and smoke, and suf- 
focation of a wild fanaticism on the one hand, and the most 
vehement threats to dissolve the Union if something was not 
done, on the other, what wonder were it if all their votes 
should not have been cast precisely right, in the emergency 



ON THE PASSAGE OF THE COMPROMISE. 315 

of the moment ! We are now examining their measures af- 
ter the smoke of the conflict has dispersed, and as no man knows 
what votes he might not have cast, in order to secure the unity 
of this great nation, when he believed it was in danger, 
so let no man yield himself up to the foul spirit of intoler- 
ance. Besides, sir, this fatal war on our rights has only just 
begun. The enemy has only carried our outposts. They 
have drawn a cordon of non-slaveholding States around us 
by the late bills, and are now only waiting for the new appor- 
tionment to give them an increase of strength, and for the ar- 
rival of their new levies from California, Utah and New Mexico, 
to make a fresh onslought upon us — on the abolition of slavery 
in the States— in the District of Columbia— in the forts, arse- 
nals, &c. of the United States — the prohibition of the transfer 
of slaves from one State to another. When that time shall 
come, we shall need that there should be no estrangement 
among the men of the south. " Shoulder to shoulder, and with 
shield locked on shield," we must then stand or fall together. 
Till then let no division of opinion make divisions in friendship. 
There is yet another thing this heart of mine will not do. 
For nothing in the past, great as have been our wrongs, will 
it beat one pulse the less of ardent devotion to the Constitution 
and the Union. My motto now is, endurance of the past, re- 
sistance for the future. The past can be endured. Though 
it demand all the forgiveness of the Christian, and all the for- 
bearance of the patriot, it nevertheless can be endured. The 
future, I awfully fear, cannot. When you shall hear that the 
most solemn covenants of the Constitution are broken by law- 
less mobs, and your fellow-citizens imprisoned for demanding 
the restoration of their property — demanding it too, with the late 
fugitive slave bill in the one hand, and the Constitution of the 
United States in the other — when you shall see the beacon 
fires blazing all along the mountain border of Maryland and 
Virginia — all along the shores of the Ohio — as signals for the 
flight and escape of your property — when military detach- 
ments shall have to be sent, night after night, to the protec- 
tion of your homes and your families — when every lire-bell at 
night will make the mother clasp her infant closer to her bo- 
som — how can you endure this, and more than this ? In such 



316 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

a future, who then can talk of a Constitution with its violated 
covenants, or of a Union with all its shattered fragments strewn 
around us ! The great law of self-defence will then be all that 
is left us. It is the law by which even the reptile resists the 
invader. Under that law, whether to be found in the reserved 
rights of the States under the Constitution, or in the admitted 
right of revolution, I care not — under that law of self-preser- 
vation, the States will have to fall back upon their full original 
sovereignty, and provide again " for the enjoyment of life, 
liberty, and property." God grant, however, that the dark fu- 
ture which I have portrayed may never come. On the con- 
trary, may it come to us crowned with peace and fraternal con- 
cord ; may it come with the Constitution still unbroken, and 
the Union, with adamantine strength, still bespanning the con- 
tinent, from ocean to ocean, brighter and more glorious than 
ever. To such a Union I owe a perfect and perpetual obedi- 
ence — to such a one I will adhere, and adhere to the last, like 
the gallant sailor, when about to be driven from the vessel 
which he had long defended, when he had been driven over 
the very side of his ship, he seized it with his right hand, when 
that had been cut off he seized it with the left, when that had 
been cut off he seized it with his teeth, and so went down with" 
it to the bottom. Sir, I say this of that Union which now is — 
of that Union which Washington, and Madison, and Pinckney, 
and the Rutledges gave us. But to that Union which may be 
yet to come — to that Union which would deprive me of my 
property, which would beggar my children, which would fire 
my dwelling, and spread around me all the horrors of a servile 
war — to a Union which would deluge " my own, my native 
land" in one vast sea of blood — by Heavens, I owe it no 
allegiance ! 

Sir, it was upon this great principle that the Tennessee reso- 
lutions were constructed : That we will abide by the past — by 
the late legislation in Congress — with that fidelity which has 
always distinguished the south. But, at the same time, we 
solemnly affirm that our cup is full — we can drink no more. 
Will those who propose not to abide by the past, but to strike, 
and to strike now, will they hear from me one argument against 
this rash and perilous deed? Who are here? Call Mary- 



OX THE PASSAGE OF THE COMPROMISE. 317 

land, Call North Carolina, call Missouri, call Arkansas, call 
Louisiana, call Kentucky. Do they answer ? No, not one 
of them. Who, then, are here? Virginia answers with one 
lone solitary voice. Virginia,, whose trumpet notes have so 
often called the sons of the south together against all and 
every encroachment on the rights of the States. Where are 
all her mighty men, that they do not come up to the great work 
which you propose to do ? Look too, to the falling off of that 
crowd of patriotic men who thronged these halls even at your 
last session! From Alabama, where is Campbell, and Cole- 
man, and Davis, and Cooper, and Winston ? From Missis- 
sippi, where is Mathews, and Boyd, and Sharkey, and Clayton, 
and Wilkinson? 

Sir, there must be some good reason for all this. Let us 
look facts directly in the face, and they will tell us that since 
our last meeting great doubts have arisen in the minds of our 
southern brethren, as to whether the late legislation of Con- 
gress has not been such as ought to be satisfactory to the south ; 
at least, so satisfactory as to supersede any further action 
of this body. Sir, we do know that these doubts do exist. 
Look to your own State — look to Mississippi — look to the ac- 
counts from Louisiana. What do we find ? I pray you an- 
swer me the question : what do we find? Our own southern 
people divided about equally on the subject. Here I pause, 
to ask of every man who now surrounds me, is it wise, is it 
just, in such a divided and distracted condition of the southern 
mind, to venture on so bold a measure ? And is it not a bold 
measure to proclaim that the deep foundations of this govern- 
ment are to be broken up and a new one to be erected on its 
ruins ! Let me tell the gentleman from Virginia (Gen. Gordon) 
that when the news shall reach that ancient commonwealth, it 
will shake the very walls of her capitol, and the statue of 
Washington will tremble on its marble basement. When this 
great nation shall be passing through the agonies of dissolu- 
tion, her dying groans will be heard through half the habitable 
world. Her fall, like that of Jerusalem, will be preceded by 
signs in the heavens and commotions on the earth ; a sword 
will be seen in the sky, a great comet will blaze over her, and 
armies in battle array will be seen amid the clouds. On earth 



318 



CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 



you will hear and feel the earthquake tread of a mighty peo- 
ple, coming up to a larger council than this. Until we see 
this latter sign, at least, let us not proclaim that her end draw- 
eth nigh In the spirit of the Tennessee resolutions, let us 
rather proclaim: Not yet! not yet! — no never shall this re- 
public end until the sovereign people who created it, in one 
one grand united council, shall pronounce its doom. 



TENNESSEE RESOLUTIONS. 



In Convention, Nov. 13, 1850. 

Gen. Pillow, of Tennessee, offered the following preamble 
and resolutions, which were read and referred : 

Whereas, since the adjournment of this convention, in June 
last, bills have been passed into laws by the Congress of the 
United States for the admission of California into the Union 
as a State, for the settlement and adjustment of the boundaries 
of Texas, and for organizing territorial governments for Utah 
and New Mexico ; also bills abolishing the slave trade in the 
District of Columbia, and for the recovery of fugitives from 
labor; with the view of making known our opinions on these 
bills, and the steps to be taken by the South upon them, there- 
fore — 

1. Resolved, That although said bills fall short of that measure of justice 
to which the South, in our opinion,, is fairly entitled, yet as the same have 
become the laws of the land, and for the purpose of giving the highest proof 
of our attachment and devotion to the Union, this convention hereby de- 
clares its willingness to abide by them with that fidelity which has distin- 
guished the South on all former occasions. 

2. Resolved, That this determination to abide by the late legislation of 
Congress aforesaid, is predicated on the express condition that the North 
shall faithfully carry it out on her part, according to the spirit and true 
meaning of the same. 

3. Resolved, That this convention does distinctly understand, that accord- 
ing to the spirit and true meaning of said legislation, it embraces all the 
action which the North proposes to take in relation to slavery, and that in 
addition to the subjects expressly provided for in said bills, no attempt will 
hereafter be made by the northern people to deprive the South of the repre- 
sentation secured to her in the Constitution, or to abolish, directly or indi- 
rectly, slavery in the District of Columbia or in the States, nor to prevent 

22 



320 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

the transportation of slaves from one slaveholding State to another bv their 
lawful owners, nor to prevent the admission of any new State on account 
of the toleration of slavery in its constitution. 

4. Resolved, That in view of the sacrifices to which the southern States 
have heretofore submitted, and to which they are further subjected by agree- 
ing to abide by the bills lately passed by Congress, they have a right to de- 
mand, and do demand, that all agitations and aggressions on the part of the 
North upon the subject of slavery, shall instantly cease ; and that the re- 
peal of the fugitive slave bill, or any alteration of it which may render it 
less effectual in its objects, must of necessity render all further association 
as friends and brethren utterly impossible. 

5. Resolved, That if the people of the northern States, by voluntary as- 
sociations or otherwise, shall continue to obstruct and prevent the execution 
of the fugitive slave law, thereby depriving southern citizens of their pro- 
perty and giving encouragement to other slaves to escape from service ; or 
if they shall commence a system of agitation with the view and obvious 
purpose of abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia or in the 
States, or of depriving the South of the representation of three-fifths of 
her slaves to which she is now entitled under the constitution ; or of 
prohibiting the transportation of slaves from one slave State to another ; 
or of excluding from the Union any new State on account of the tol- 
eration of slavery in its Constitution, then this convention earnestly 
recommends to the people of the South to resort to the most rigid 
system of commercial non-intercourse with all such States, communities, 
and cities, as shall be found so offending against their constitutional rio-fits. 
For this purpose, we earnestly invite the Legislature of every Southern 
State to unite with us in this recommendation ; and that in every State 
and county, and town, and neighborhood, resolutions may be adopted not 
to purchase or use, as far as practicable, any article whatever known to 
have been produced or manufactured in any such State, community, or city, 
or to have been imported into the same for sale. In further aid of this 
object, we earnestly recommend to the southern States, and their people 
to encourage, by all the means in their power, their own mechanics and 
manufacturers of every description — to push forward all their railroads and 
other internal improvements connectiug them with their best exporting and 
importing cities on the Gulf and on the Atlantic. We make these recom- 
mendations in no spirit of revenge, but as a just and necessary means of 
self-defence, to be persisted in only until the rights secured to us by the 
constitution shall be respected. 

6. Resolved, That if, contrary to our understanding of the several bills 
aforesaid, the Congress of the United States shall at any time repeal or so 
alter or amend the fugitive slave law as to render it less efficacious than it 
now is, or if it shall pass any bill abolishing slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia, or abolish it directly or indirectly in the States, or if the present basis 
of slave representation as secured in the constitution be obliterated, or if the 



ON THE PASSAGE OF THE COMPROMISE. 321 

transportation of slaves from one slaveholding State to another be prohib- 
ited, or if slavery in our present territories shall be prohibited — in either of 
these events this convention earnestly recommends that the Legislature 
of each southern State be forthwith convened, for the purpose of calling a 
convention in each State, and that delegates to be appointed in such manner 
as shall be determined on by said conventions, may meet at such time and 
place as may be agreed on, with full power and authority to do any thing 
and every thing which the peace, safety, and honor of the South may 
demand. 



NOTE. 



Wishing to preserve the leading facts in relation to the 
Tennessee resolutions, reported by Gen. Pillow to the South- 
ern Convention, we have enquired and found them substan- 
tially as follows : 

On Monday, 11th November, 1850, the Tennessee delegates met at Mr. 
Southall's office in Nashville. Maj. Wm. H. Polk moved that Gov. Brown 
and Mr. Nicholson be appointed to prepare and present resolutions, such a3 
they might deem it proper for the delegation to present to the convention. 

On Tuesday morning, Gov. Brown and Mr. Nicholson met at the room of 
the latter, in the Nashville Inn. Gov. Brown presented a series of resolutions 
which he had drawn up, and read them over. Mr. Nicholson desired the 
word u far" to be stricken from the first resolution, so that it might read, " al- 
though said bills fall short of that measure of justice," &c, stating that there 
were different shades of opinion in the State as to the degree which the bills 
fell short ; and so to harmonize conflicting opinions as far as possible, he moved 
to strike out the word " far," ta which Gov. Brown assented, and the same 
was stricken out accordingly. 

On Wednesday, the resolutions were reported by Mr. Nicholson, but read 
by Gov. Brown, as they were in his handwriting. On motion of Mr. F. 
McGavock, and after some discussion, in which Mr. Claiborne, Maj. Polk, Mr. 
Stevenson, Gen. Hardin, Mr. McLaurin, Mr. Southall and others, took part, 
the following words in the first resolution were stricken out, to wit : " and 
because the same are presented to us as a compromise and come recom- 
mended to us by the sanction of so* many southern votes.'' After some other 
slight and rather verbal amendments, the same were adopted and ordered 
to be reported by General Pillow, there chairman. 

Editors of the American. 



ADDRESS 

Of Ex-Gov. Aaron V. Brown, to the public, previous to the 
Meeting of the Southern Convention. 



We have the pleasure of presenting our readers to-day with an eloquent and 
patriotic letter from Ex-Gov. A. V. Brown, on the exciting question of the 
day. Coming from one whom the Democracy of the State have long de- 
lighted to honor, it will exercise an important influence throughout the 
State. Though mild and temperate, it is yet a firm and dignified defence of 
the motives of the friends of the Southern Convention, and we believe 
that it very nearly expresses the views of the advocates of the Conven- 
tion in this State. We commend it especially to the perusal of our whig 
friends, and of all those who talk of " disunion" as the motive of the 
Convention : — Nashville Union. 

Near Nashville, April 10, 1850. 
Mr. E. G. Eastman— Sir : I noticed in one of the whig 
papers of your eity, during my recent visit to the south, that 
in advocating the appointment of delegates to the Nashville 
convention and in vindicating the purposes and objects of that 
convention, you were charged with acting in advance of the 
old and experienced members of your party ; and amongst 
such, my name was introduced in a manner calculated to 
make the impression that I was not in favor of the conven- 
tion. I shall be compelled to be again absent from the State 
for the next month, and can therefore take no part in any pub- 
lic discussions which may take place between the present time 
and the period (first Monday in May) designated for the ap- 
pointment of county delegates to attend said convention. 
Unwilling to leave this rebuke of your course unnoticed, and 



324 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES, 

unwilling to be absent during the animated discussions now 
going on in relation to said convention, without leaving the 
most unmistakable evidence of my opinions behind me, for 
the consideration of all persons who may feel any interest in 
knowing them, I have concluded to address you this letter. 

I know nothing more of the objects and purposes of calling 
said convention, than I have learned through the public press, 
detailing the proceedings of State conventions, the resolutions 
of State legislatures, and of primary assemblies of the peo- 
ple who have acted on this subject. All these, with no remem- 
bered exception, announce the objects and purposes of the 
convention to be eminently patriotic and entirely consistent 
with the preservation and perpetuity of the Union. Not one 
of them avows or intimates the slightest purpose of dissolving 
it. In the face of avowed good objects I will not presume bad 
ones against the men already appointed and who are coming 
up to Nashville from the fifteen States of the South, an equal 
number from both political parties, and who have given evi- 
dence of the highest devotion to the Constitution and the 
Union. Take, for illustration sake, Chief Justice Sharkey of 
Mississippi. He presided over the first convention that was 
held, and is, I understand, coming up with Judge Guion, and 
other whigs, to the convention. Now, would it be at all right 
or proper in me to set aside their distinct and clear annuncia- 
tion of their motives in coming, and presume against them the 
darkest and blackest crime which an American can possibly 
commit ? So I might enumerate the names of eminent whigs 
from other States, who have led the vanguard of their party at 
home, in many a hard fought battle, and who are coming up 
to Nashville covered with the scars of party warfare ; wounds 
and scars received when some of those who now assail their 
motives and their honor, were but puling infants in their 
cradles. Can I do these men, although differing from them 
as I do in politics, the crying injustice which some of their own 
party editors are doing in this State — of denouncing them, in 
advance, against their own express declarations on mere sus- 
picion, as traitors and disunionists ? I cannot, and will not 
perpetrate such an outrage against either the whigs or demo- 
crats who have been or may be appointed to said convention. 



ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE. 



325 



I will presume their motives and purposes to be such as they 
declare them to be, until they shall assemble, and by some un- 
patriotic act prove to the contrary. This is the rule of law and 
of the public press with regard to every accused felon, the 
highwayman and the murderer. The press never denounces 
them as such in advance, but presuming their innocence, be- 
speaks for them a fair and impartial trial. 

If it be alleged in extenuation of the crying injustice now 
every day being done by the whig press to the eminent whig 
delegates that are coming up from the other fourteen Southern 
States, that they do not impute such unpatriotic purposes to 
Judge Sharkey and the great body of other whigs and demo- 
crats who have been appointed to the convention — but only to 
a portion of them, the " Hotspurs" — the " madcaps" of the 
south — the answers to such plea is most evident, that the num- 
ber of such must be very small, and that wise and prudent men 
of both parties ought to be sent there, and to be in full attend- 
ance, to vote down instantly any and every extreme and unpa- 
triotic proposition, which such men might offer. 

If it be true, as we often hear, that "there are fanatics on 
both sides of Mason and Dixon's line," it is only proof of the 
greater necessity for the wise and conservative men of both 
parties, whigs and democrats, in the face of such formidable 
difficulties, to mingle more freely together, and by joint con- 
sultation save both the Union and the rights of the South 
against the united attacks of these alleged fanatics. How- 
will the whigs of Tennessee feel, when that convention shall 
have met and proceeded to business, and when they may see 
their political brethren from the other fourteen States, as well 
as the democrats, in close and hard struggle against both these 
sets of fanatics, and nothing wanted to secure an easy and 
triumphant victory over both, but a full delegation from their 
party in the State, to assist by their counsel and their votes in 
its achievement ? I state the whig argument on this point in 
its full force, in order to furnish its refutation, not because I 
believe that there is any material portion of the people of any 
State, or that a single delegate from any State, whig or demo- 
crat, will be in favor of dissolving the Union. That any such 
result is likely to grow out of the convention is refuted by 



32G CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

every thing that the whig editors of the State have ever heard 
or known or read of the American people. I doubt much if 
all of them put together ever saw twenty men out of the mil- 
lions they have seen who were hostile to the Union. It is re- 
futed every time they cast their eyes over the names of the 
delegates already appointed from the different State.?. It is 
refuted by their daily intercourse with their neighbors with 
whom they transact business and interchange personal and 
social civilities, which necessarily imply confidence and esteem. 
This they could not do, if they really believed that those who 
are favorable to this convention were traitors and disun- 
ionists. 

If they belived it, they would shun and avoid every man 
they met with — ■ 

" As one who sees a serpent in his way 
Glistening and basking in the summer ray, ■ 
Disorder'd, stops, to shun the danger near, 
Then walks with faintness on and looks with fear." 

And yet I do not mean to charge these gentlemen with any 
disposition wilfully to misrepresent the designs and purposes 
of this convention ; far from it ; but I fear that they have not 
yet sufficiently waked up to the magnitude of the perils which 
now encompass the south, nor made a sufficient effort to throw 
themselves out of the habit of taking a party view of almost 
every subject which may come up under their review. 

I have thus far given you my opinions as to what this con- 
vention icas not called for. I now propose to trouble you with 
a few observations as to what was expected to be accom- 
plished by it. 

For years the" north has been attempting to interfere with 
the rights of the south in relation to our slave property. The 
attempts were weak at first, but grew stronger ever session of 
Congress, until from the presentation of petitions, they advance 
to the introduction of bills, embracing the Wilmot proviso, the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and in all the 
public establishments of the United States, and to the prohibi- 
tion of the transfer of slaves by their rightful owners from one 
slave State to another. These measures were actually pend- 
ing before Congress in some shape or other and under fierce 



ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN, PEOPLE. 327 

and daily discussion in that body. The Wilmot proviso had 
actually passed one House, and the success of all of them 
every day becoming more and more problematical. In this 
condition of things, the south became seriously impressed with 
the danger of her condition. 

The unconstitutionality of most of these measures, the ine- 
quality and injustice of all of them, occupied much of her atten- 
tion, and the probable consequences of their passage through 
Congress on her peace and safety, produced the most thrilling 
and anxious solicitude. In this condition of things, one public 
journal would express one sentiment as to what it was proper 
to be done, whilst another would suggest altogether a 'different 
mode of warding off the threatened and suspended blow. So 
of the public men of the south, in Congress, in State legisla- 
tures, before assemblies of the people ; some were too hot under 
these assaults on our rights, others too tame and submissive ; 
amid this confusion of sentiments many wise and good men of 
the south, both whigs and democrats, equally involved in the 
injurious consequences of the proposed legislation against our 
rights, for the double purpose of making a firm, united appeal 
to our northren brethren to forbear these invasions and also of 
giving moderation and harmony of action amongst the people 
of the south in their opposition to these measures, resolve on 
calling the convention. The north had called many conven- 
tions, more or less large, in order to give force and energy, and 
harmony amongst her own people in favor of such legislation. 
The south could see no good reason why she should not also 
meet in convention to devise the best means of preventing or 
defeating such legislation. But there is a striking difference 
between the two parties. 

The north has only to get a united vote of her own members 
in favor of these measures and they become the laws of the land, 
whilst the south has not only to get a united vote of her mem- 
bers against them but must make such united, firm and rational 
appeal to the justice and magnanimity of the north as may 
prevent this unanimity in her vote. It was mainly to make this 
appeal, in no degrading spirit of truckling submission, nor yet 
in the tone of blustering bravado, that the approaching conven- 
tion was called. If held before the passage of these obnoxious 



32S CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

law?, the convention can take up each bill by itself and set 
forth faithfully how it would operate on the peace, safety and 
prosperity of the south. A powerful document like this, pre- 
pared with ability, moderation and firmness, would be every 
where read and could not fail to work a most happy influence. 
When the whigs of the north should hear from the whigs of the 
south through such a document how ruinously these measures 
would operate on them, their families and property; when the 
democrats of the north should hear the same thing from their 
brethren of the south, it was sincerely hoped that they would 
forbear all further meddling with our rights and leave the Con- 
stitution and the Union precisely as it was bequeathed to us by 
the fathers of the republic. 

I know well how readily the opinion may be entertained and 
advanced that there is no likelihood that such an appeal would 
bring the north to an abandonment of their purpose. Still it 
can do the south no possible harm to make the experiment — to 
exhaust the whole stock of reason and argument in the praise- 
worthy endeavor. We may be too sanguine of the result, but 
surely there can be no reason for branding us as traitors and 
disunionists for making a fruitless effort to prevent, by reason 
and argument, what these opponents of the convention declare 
they will resent, by flying to arms after the proposed laws shall 
have been passed. Look to all they said and wrote through 
the last summer and winter, and see how uniformly they de- 
clare that if these laws shall be actually passed and carried into 
execution, they would then resist at every hazard and to the last 
extremity. This convention proposes to say something or do 
somethingbefore it comes to this"last extremity ,"and is therefore 
hallowed and sanctified by a greater devotion to the peace, con- 
stitution and Union of the country than their own proposition. 
If any portion of the south, not believing in the efficacy of this 
mode of trying to avert the calamity, should stand by unassis- 
ting in the movement, it might not be so strange; but for them 
to turn upon us and denounce us an hundred times oftcner and 
with epithets infinitely more abusive and disgracing than those 
of our oppressors, is more astounding than anything heretofore 
exhibited in the history of party warfare. 

The argument is often used against the convention, that in 



ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN TEOPLE. 



329 



all probability before the first Monday in June all the slavery 
questions now agitating Congress will be amicably compromised 
and settled. Well, if they are the convention need not meet, 
or meeting will gladly confirm such compromise if thought 
proper, and sincerely rejoice in the renewal of those amicable 
relations which have heretofore carried the nation to so high a 
degree of greatness and prosperity. But if not then settled, 
some scheme or plan of settlement may be pending, on which 
it may be of the highest consequence that such a convention 
should give a wise and prudent expression of opinion. Or the 
convention might itself present a scheme and plan not yet of- 
fered, which would give peace and repose to a now agitated 
and distracted country. What may not a heart beating high 
with attachment to the country, to the Constitution and the 
Union hope for from the united wisdom and patriotism of both 
of the great parties of the south, in the great crisis which will 
then have arrived ? To turn the noble efforts now making to 
give to the south all the benefits of that united wisdom and 
patriotism, into the narrow and contracted channel of party, 
is madness — is death to her dearest rights and interests. Those 
who have sanctioned and advocated this convention cannot 
and will not recede. A great and difficult work lies before 
them. A work in which the whigs of the south have as deep 
an interest as those of the opposite party. If they will not 
unite and help us, we will do the best we can by ourselves. 
The same calamities which await us must fall on them. But 
if, insensible of the danger, they do not cheerfully come to our 
aid, we shall nevertheless rejoice to secure them by the same 
acts and deeds by which we secure ourselves and families. 
But whilst we are trying every plan and doing every thing 
which we suppose may be calculated to save the south, we have 
a right, a just and reasonable right, to ask them to cast no 
imputation on our motives — to deal out no more denunciations 
asrainst us as traitors and disunionists, until the convention 
shall have furnished, by its acts, some evidence of the fact. 
We disclaim every such purpose. We disclaim it for the dem- 
ocratic party ; we disclaim it for the hundreds and thousands 
of the whig party who are co-operating nobly with us; and 
when that convention shall assemble, the wisdom, calmness and 



330 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

patriotism of its deliberations and resolves, in my opinion, will 
be the proudest vindication of its devotion to our country, its 
Constitution and the Union. 

Very respectfully, your most obedient servant, 

AARON V. BROWN. 



LETTER 

Of Ex-Gov. Aaron V. Brown, on the late Southern Convention? 

in June, 1850. 



To the Editor of the Nashville Union : 

Sir — It was my intention to have addressed you this letter 
after the rise of the late Southern Convention, in order to give 
my fellow-citizens of the Tennessee delegation, for whom I ac- 
ted in part, on one of the most important committees of that 
body, (and most of whom retired early in the session,) some 
connected and condensed account of its final action. Unavoid- 
able delay in its preparation had almost induced an abandon- 
ment of the idea, when the appearance of Mr. Nicholson's 
letter, my colleague on the committee, remitted my mind back 
to its original purpose. The language accidently used by Mr. 
Nicholson in the early paragraphs of his letter too nearly con- 
veys the idea that the minority report and the views and posi- 
tions taken in it were personal entirely to himself, which 
makes it both necessary and proper for me here to remark, that 
it was signed not only by Mr. Nicholson, but by myself and 
one of the delegates from each of the States of Alabama, Flor- 
ida and Arkansas, and contained of course the views of all of 
us. It grew out of the discussions which had taken place in 
the committee room, in which I maintained, that we were not 
charged with the performance of that duty — that I doubted 
much both the necessity and propriety of the convention sen- 
ding out an address at all. That our resolutions and their 
preambles stood in need of no address — no commentary, to 
elucidate and explain them. That the series of resolutions 



332 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

constituted the very acts and doings of the convention, which 
we had prepared with great care and thoughtfulness, and on 
which I thought the convention might proudly stand and chal- 
lenge the scrutiny and criticism "of genius, of talents and of 
time." But if wc sent forth a long address — a mere speech — 
argument — commentary or whatever else it might be called, 
the enemies of the convention, instead of attacking the resolu- 
tions themselves, would recoil from such a bomb-proof battery 
as we had erected, and turn aside to assault outer works of mi- 
nor importance, and indeed in my judgment of no importance 
at all. We have already witnesed much of what I then anti- 
cipated in my argument before the committee. What have we 
yet heard said, or seen written against the resolutions of the 
convention ? Almost nothing at all, whilst the hostile presses 
of the country, or many of them, are making points of petty 
criticism not on the resolutions, which are the real actings and 
doings of the convention, but on the speech — the mere com- 
mentary on the resolutions. How much more intelligent and 
statesman-like would it be, to let slight errors and mistakes in 
the commentary alone, unless they could find them also exist- 
ing in the original text. But my views against sending out 
any address at all, were not embraced by a majority of the 
committee, and when they were in the act of agreeing on the 
address as reported, I announced to the committee that no re- 
course was left to those who could not concur in the address 
but a minority report, which they would present in the morn- 
ing, but in no spirit of irritated temper and with no view of 
disturbing the future harmony of the convention. The pre- 
sentation of it next morning by Mr. Nicholson, took no member 
by surprise, nor was it considered by any one, I believe, in any 
other light, than as a prudent and proper mode of putting the 
members who signed it "right upon the record ."As the objections 
taken to that part of the address, which related to the report of 
the Committee of Thirteen in the Senate, were general, I think 
proper here to specify the most important ones which presented 
themselves to my mind. 1 considered that many of the ex- 
pressions, and indeed the general tone of that part of the ad- 
dress might be taken as an unkind rebuke of the members of 
that committee. I had no heart to rebuke them myself. I had 



ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE. 333 

approved the persevering exertions of that senator who was so 
instrumental in its creation. I had approved the selection of 
distinguished men who had served upon it. I had waited with 
anxiety for the day which should usher the result of their la- 
bors before the country. At last their report was presented, 
not such as I had hoped it would be — not such as without 
amendments I could approve and sanction — but yet so infin- 
itely superior to the northern measures, which it was intended 
to supersede, and so susceptible by a few amendments of being 
made acceptable to the south, that I did hail it as a measure 
which when perfected would give peace and repose to the 
country. Under these circumstances I could not consent to 
administer the slightest rebuke to the members of the com- 
mittee, nor to censure in such unqualified terms the proposi- 
tions which they had submitted. 

The presentation of our minority report, had the effect of 
instantly attracting the attention of members to those parts of 
the address objected to, which resulted in a general and almost 
spontaneous agreement to amend on the motion of Gen. Pil- 
low, by striking out many of the most objectionable expressions 
in that part of the address. Still, with even this purgation, I 
could not consent to vote for it, (the address) until it was so 
amended as to show expressly on its face that there were many 
members not yet satisfied with it. So amended, I was willing 
and did vote for it — because whilst it gave others the oppor- 
tunity to speak out whatever opinions they entertained against 
the report of the Committee of Thirteen in the Senate, it ef- 
fectually protected me against all responsibility for them. I 
had yet another reason higher and stronger than all for finally 
voting for the address. It had been amended in one great and 
essential particular — more important in my humble judgment 
than all the other amendments put together. That is to be 
found in the last one of Gen. Pillow's amendments. All the 
others had been prepared by him, and I was appealed to, to 
know if they would reconcile me to vote for the address. I ad- 
vanced to the table, wrote it down, and then declared "with that 
inserted I was ready to vote for the address." The General 
adopted it into his series — the committee with slight variation 
approved and reported it, and the convention adopted it. This 



334 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

amendment in substance declared, that while the convention 
regarded the Missouri Compromise as an extreme concession, 
they did not mean to demand it as an ultimatum, but that the 
south would acquiesce in any other adjustment which secured 
to her substantially the same rights and privileges. I hailed 
this amendment with the greatest pleasure, because it clearly 
indicated no wish to supersede the patriotic labors of the com- 
mittee of the Senate as far as they had gone, but that the con- 
vention was perfectly willing to see it perfected by amend- 
ments, which would make it equivalent to the Missouri Compro- 
mise, in the advantages secured to the south. For myself, it 
would be among the last of my wishes to see that bill super- 
seded and voted down, even if the Missouri Compromise, in its 
very words, were substituted in its stead. I had much rather 
see that or its equivalent inserted as an amendment to the pres- 
ent bill — so that its identity might be preserved, reflecting light 
and honor upon the names of its distinguished authors. They 
are entitled to it, and I know nor feel enough of party rancor 
in reference to any of them, to withhold the meed of merited 
praise. 

The Missouri Compromise, as the standard or measure of 
concession to which the south might submit without dishonor, 
was no new doctrine with me. I had seen the beneficial results 
of that compromise in the admission of Arkansas and Florida, 
two slave holding States, without any serious opposition by 
the north. I had seen the same line extended through the 
territory of Texas when annexed to the United States with 
the happiest influence on the country. Under the light of such 
experience, in my messages to the General Assembly and in 
all my popular addresses to the people of Tennessee in three 
arduous canvasses — at all times and on all occasions, I have 
advocated the line thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north lati- 
tude as a just and reasonable line of partition. But I am free 
to declare that I have never seen the day or the hour when I 
would have conceded more than this or have fallen belovj 
that measure of concession. The despotism of numbers may 
muster all her forces — fanaticism may kindle all her fires, the 
fairest fields of the south may be desolated, before I will con- 
sent to add dishonor and degradation to the other wrongs of 



ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN PEOrLE. 335 

the south. But I do not mean to deal in any trifling plav of 
words, when I advocate and assent to the Missouri compro- 
mise. I do not demand it in hec verba. I look rather to the 
true nature and substance of things, and whenever the south 
shall be tendered an adjustment which shall be equivalent to 
that compromise, I for one shall not hesitate to advise its ac- 
ceptance. Having stated that I was in favor of the present 
bill, with amendments, I will proceed frankly to state what 
amendments, in my opinion, would make it equivalent to the 
Missouri Compromise, and therefore acceptable. 

In the first place, I would remove every shadow of doubt from 
that part of the bill which relates to fixing the future bounda- 
ries of Texas, by expressly declaring that the territory pro- 
posed to be ceded to the United States, should be slave terri- 
tory in her hands precisely as it now is in the hands of Texas. 
To such an explanation none could object, except only such as 
were resolved not to abide by the express terms and conditions 
of annexation. This would leave the Missouri line of thirty- 
six thirty established as far west as the Rio Grande. 

In relation to California, I would admit her into the Union 
with the brief but expressive proviso, that her southern boun- 
dary should be thirty-six thirty to the Pacific Ocean ; I would 
waive the irregularity of her application — all imputed execu- 
tive dictation — all doubts of the citizenship of those who par- 
ticipated in the formation of her constitution. I would do 
more than this — I would admit her as a State larger than 
Pennsylvania — than New York — than Virginia, but I would 
not consent to give her the whole Pacific coast to herself. — 
South California does not and never did desire it. Her people 
have often and solemnly protested against it. Besides, we 
have many reasons to believe that the people of California, an- 
ticipating objections to her enormous boundaries, have au- 
thorized her representatives to accept any alteration that may 
be made, and instantly to take their seats in the halls of Con- 
gress. If, however, this be not so, the delay of a few months 
cannot be very prejudicial to her; and if it were, she may well 
deserve it, for attempting — by making such unreasonable claim 
of boundary — to influence a great political and local question 
of the Union, when she was not yet a member of it. 

23 



33G CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

This curtailment of the boundary of California would make 
it necessary to create a territorial government for South Cali- 
fornia. This, and the two others provided in the bill, disposes 
of the whole country acquired from Mexico. Now what shall 
be applied to it? The north answers, the Wilmot proviso, ex- 
cluding slavery from every part of it. The convention replies 
that to this she never will submit, but further says in the spirit 
of compromise and " in consideration of what is due to the sta- 
bility of our institutions," she will concede to its application as 
far as to latitude thirty-six thirty, as she had done on two for- 
mer occasions, or she will concede to any equivalent compro- 
mise. Now the Committee of Thirteen, in the high and deli- 
cate character of mediators between the contending parties, 
]( jeet the Wilmot proviso altogether, and present the Clayton 
compromise substantially as the basis of settlement. What 
was the Clayton compromise? Simply that Congress should 
organize territorial governments for the country acquired from 
Mexico, neither admitting nor excluding the introduction of 
slavery into any portion of it ; leaving slavery to spread itself 
over all and every part of it, if it could do so consistently with 
the Mexican laws abolishing slavery. W nether these laws did 
or did not abolish it, or if they did, whether they were still in 
force, were questions under the Clayton compromise left to the 
decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. And so 
they are by the present bill, and my opinion has been pro- 
claimed to the people of Tennessee in more than fifty public 
addresses, declaring that all such Mexican laws stood repealed 
the moment that country passed "beneath the wing of the 
eagle." Whether the Clayton compromise be equal to the 
.Missouri one, depends entirely upon the correctness of this 
opinion. 

Fortunately, however, the convention decided this question 
for itself, and demonstrated, I think conclusively, that there is 
now no law whatever in the territories acquired, excluding 
slavery from them, and that of consequence the Clayton com- 
promise (substantially that of the bill now pending before 
Congress) is an ample equivalent to the Missouri Compromise. 
The following are its resolutions directly on the point: 

l f J. Besolvad, That the whole legislative power of the United States gov- 



ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE. 337 

eminent is derived from the Constitution and delegated to Congress, and can- 
not be increased or diminished but by an amendment of the Constitution. 

20. Resolved, That the acquisition of territory by the United States, wheth- 
er occupied or vacant, either by purchase, conquest or treaty, adds nothing 
to the legislative power of Congress, as granted and limited in the Constitu- 
tion. 

21. Resolved, That the adoption of a foreign law existing at the time in 
territory purchased, ceded or granted, is the exercise of legislative power, 
and cannot be done unless the law is of such a character as might rightfully 
be enacted by Congress under the Constitution, without reference to its pre- 
existence as a foreign law. 

22. Resolved, That the alleged principle of the law of nations recognizing, 
to some extent, the perpetuity of foreign laws in existence within a territory 
at the time of its acquisition by purchase, conquest or treaty, cannot, under 
our Constitution and form of government, go to the extent of continuing in 
force, in such territory, any law that could not be directly enacted by Con- 
gress, by virtue of the powers of legislation delegated to it by the Constitu- 
tion. 

23. Resolved, That no power of doing any act or thing by any of the de- 
partments of our government, can be based upon the principles of any for- 
eign law, or of the laws of nations, beyond what exists in such department 
under the Constitution of the United States, without reference to such for- 
eign law or the laws of nations. 

24. Resolved, That slavery exists in the United States, independent of the 
Constitution ; that it is recognized by the Constitution in a three- fold aspect : 
first, as property ; second, as a domestic relation of service or labor under 
the law of a State ; and lastly, as a basis of political power. And viewed 
in any or all of these lights, Congress has no power under the Constitution 
to create or destroy it anywhere ; nor can such power be derived from for- 
eign laws, conquest, cession, treaty, or the laws of nations, nor from any 
other source but an amendment of the Constitution itself. 

If it be asked, if these were our views, after indicating them 
as we did by our minority report, why we did not press them in 
argument before the convention and reject the address, the 
ready answer is to be found in the fact that we were in a minor- 
ity — a minority ascertained to be too small to give promise of 
success in full convention. Situated as we were, all we could 
accomplish after the convention had declared for the Missouri 
Compromise, was to prevail on them further to declare that they 
would acquiesce in any other adjustment equally favorable. — 
This being done, we conceived that the bill pending before 
Congress did not stand necessarily suspended or condemned 
by the convention, but was still open and susceptible of im- 



338 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

provement until it should become a satisfactory equivalent. — 
Then, and not till then, did we withdraw from the unequal con- 
test about the address, and permit it to go with the declaration 
on its face, that we were not satisfied with a portion of it. 

Judging from the published debates in Congress, I doubt 
much whether the amendment I have indicated will be adopted, 
or indeed whether the bill will be passed at all. I rejoice, 
therefore, that the convention has declared for the Missouri line 
as a definite and specific compromise, in which the south will be 
willing to acquiesce. This is precise and unmistakable, and 
will constitute, I trust, a great common rallying point, where all 
the friends of the south can meet with that perfect unanimity 
of sentiment which characterized the convention in adopting 
it. In taking the vote upon it, no discordant note was heard 
throughout the spacious hall of her deliberations. The north 
will never see in its adoption the slightest evidence of a craven 
spirit of pusillanimity; she may rather discover in the una- 
nimity of that vote the most solemn determination never to 
fall below her former concessions in any important or material 
particular. In convention I spoke for no State, no district, but 
only for those who were in favor of being represented there, 
and who kindly appointed me and others for that purpose. — 
But here I speak for myself, when I say that rather than see 
her fall materially below her former concessions — the Missouri 
— the Texas — the Clayton — the present compromise, when 
amended as I have stated it should be, I would advise her to 
resort to every sort of municipal regulation within the powers 
of the States — to quarantine regulations of the most annoy- 
ing character — to every species of embarrassment to her trade 
and commerce. I would have every southern legislature earn- 
estly to recommend to every merchant, trader, and factor, to for- 
bear the purchase and traffic in a single commodity of north- 
ern manufacture; and to every farmer, and planter, and day- 
laborer of the south, forthwith to give up the purchase and use 
of any and every article of northern fabric — to give bounties 
and premiums for the establishment of factories of every sort 
and description throughout the southern States — to expend 
their last dollar in the construction of railroads, turnpikes and 
canals from every region of the interior to the best exporting 



ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE, 339 

and importing cities on the Atlantic and the Gulf. I know 
well how ineffectual such modes of retaliation would prove in 
times of apathy and unconcern ; but when the proposed meas- 
ures shall have been passed — when the Missouri Compromise, 
or its equivalent, shall have been rejected, and any harder or 
more oppressive terms shall be attempted to be enforced on 
the south, few men can tell the potency — the mighty power — 
which a well directed system of commercial non-intercourse 
with the north can exert in times of high and general excite- 
ment. There is no need of total suspension of that inter- 
course ; a total aversion to the purchase or use of any of her 
manufactures, to effect our object : 25 or 30 per cent, annually 
of her profits from southern intercourse and consumption, will 
waken up the whole commercial north to the disaster to them- 
selves which further continuance of aggression must produce. 
Nor would all this be done in a wanton spirit of retaliation and 
revenge. Retaliation it would indeed be ; but it would be re- 
taliation in self defence — defence of ourselves — our property 
— our families — our homes ! A retaliation sanctioned and ap- 
proved by the great law of nature and of God, and never to be 
discontinued until it induced a change in the oppression of our 
adversaries. Entertaining the opinions which I do of the va- 
rious means of retaliation, with a view to induce the north to 
do us justice, I never expect to advise her to any schemes of 
disunion — of cecession — of nullification. The Union is my 
property — my inherited property — which I regard of great 
value. I never mean to permit the north to take it from me, 
nor to induce me by its aggressions to throw it away. I will 
contend for that property as soon and as long as for any other. 
There are many cases where the misconduct of partners might 
justify dissolution; but even the injured partner, for various 
reasons, might well decline breaking up the concern, whilst he 
would choose not to submit, but to resent — to retaliate upon 
his offending co-partner until he should be more than willing to 
cease his unprofitable warfare on his rights. 

It is too late now to insist that the Missouri Compromise is 
unconstitutional and cannot be voted for in the present con- 
test. The whole system of northern interference with slavery 
is unconstitutional, and surely we may be allowed in self-de- 



340 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

fence to arrest it at any point or degree of latitude we may be 
able. If we cannot save all, let us preserve as much of our 
rights as we may be able to do. Besides this, the convention 
places her concession to the line of thirty-six thirty, expressly 
on the ground of compromise — the compromise of a contested 
construction of the Constitution. Now what is there in the na- 
ture of the case to prevent such a question from becoming the 
proper subject of a compromise? The Constitution itself was 
the creature of compromise. Why may not a proper construc- 
tion of certain clauses of it become so ? To the resolutions of 
annexation in 1844-5, the clause was inserted excluding slavery 
north of thirty-six thirty, and yet the friends of annexation 
found no difficulties in afterwards giving them their support. — 
Why was this ? Doubtless because they considered that the 
construction of the constitution on this subject had been com- 
promised by their predecessors in the halls of Congress more 
than twenty years before, and no one felt constrained by his in- 
dividual opinions (if it were a new question) to open afresh the 
bleeding wounds of his country. That compromise of consti- 
tutional construction extended to thirty-six thirty, and there- 
fore as a precedent carries us no further. All beyond that is 
without warrant, without precedent, and utterly subversive of 
all equality among the States. Remember I am talking not 
about ordinary legislative or even judicial precedents. I am 
speaking of solemn compacts or covenants between large sec- 
tions of the nation, in times of great exigency, when the Re- 
public is in danger, and which are therefore more to be rever- 
enced and observed than precedents of an ordinary character. 
I consider the compromise tariff, the Missouri, and Texas, and 
the present one, if adopted, to be all of that description, and to 
impose higher obligations for their observance. In confirma- 
tion of these views, let me remind you of the full response to 
them in the last message of the lamented Polk : 

" Considering the several States and the citizens of the several States 
as equals, and entitled to equal rights under the Constitution, if this were 
an original question, it might well be insisted on that the principle of non- 
interference is the true doctrine, and that Congress could not, in the ab- 
Benceof any express grant of power, interfere with their relative rights. — 
Upon a great emergency, however, and under menacing dangers to the 
Union, the Missouri Compromise line in respect to slavery was adopted. — 



ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE. 3 11 

The same line was extended further west in the acquisition of Texas. Af- 
ter an acquiescence of nearly thirty years in the principle of Compromise 
recognized and established by these acts, and to avoid the danger to the Un- 
ion which might follow if it were now disregarded, I have heretofore ex- 
pressed the opinion that that line of compromise should be extended on the 
parallel of thirty-six thirty from the western boundary of Texas, where it 
now terminates, to the Pacific ocean. This is the middle ground of com- 
promise, upon which the different sections of the Union may meet, as they 
have heretofore met. If this be done, it is confidently believed a large ma- 
jority of the people of every section of the country, however widely their 
abstract opinions on the subject of slavery may differ, would cheerfully and 
patriotically acquiesce in it, and peace and harmony would again fill our 
borders. 

"The restriction north of the line was yielded to in the case of Missouri 
and Texas upon a principle of compromise, made necessary for the sake of 
preserving the harmony, and possibly the existence of tKe Union. 

" It was upon these considerations that at the close of your last session, 
I gave my sanction to the principle of the Missouri Compromise line, by 
approving and signing the bill to establish " the territorial government of 
Oregon." From a sincere desire to preserve the harmony of the Union, 
and in deference of the acts of my predecessors, I felt constrained to yield 
my acquiescence to the extent to which they had gone in compromising this 
delicate and dangerous question. But if Congress shall now reverse the 
decision by which the Missouri Compromise was effected, and shall pro- 
pose to extend the restriction over the whole territory, south as well as 
north of the parallel of thirty-six thirty, it will cease to be a compromise > 
and must be regarded as an original question." 

To the Missouri Compromise I know it lias been objected 
that it conflicts with the doctrine of non-intervention ; that it 
is intervention on one side of the line and non-intervention on 
the other. Well, and suppose it is, can the south be blamed 
for that? Has she ever abandoned that doctrine ? Mr. Nich- 
olson tells us truly that " she has stood upon it and fought for 
it for years." She fought for it in 1820, when Missouri was 
admitted, but could not stand; but was compelled to fall back 
on non-intervention south of thirty-six thirty. She fought for 
it in 1S44-5, on the admission of Texas, but again could not 
stand, and fell back on thirty-six thirty. What shall she do 
now, when she is sorely pressed a third time? — when the north 
is contending for the total exclusion of slavery from every acre 
of land acquired from Mexico and from every port and harbor 
of the Pacific? — now, when her zeal has been thrice heated 
from the burning fires of fanaticism and her insolence grown 



3 4 2 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

more arrogant, from a consciousness that she has the power of 
numbers to sustain it? Now what was it becoming and proper 
for the south to have done? Still to demand the doctrine of 
non-intervention? Well, she did. Look to her first ten reso- 
lutions and see if she did not. She knew that it would be re- 
fused to her — on every former occasion it had been refused to 
her. What then ? She knew — she felt, that the force and 
power of the two great precedents of Missouri and Texas 
would be brought to bear upon her, and therefore she frankly 
avows her willingness to abide by those precedents, and to be 
content on the spirit of compromise, and " because she con- 
siders it due to the stability of our institutions," to establish 
non-intervention only south of thirty-six thirty. The voice of 
the convention is, on this point, the faithful echo of that of the 
late President, as we have just shown, and the sentiments of 
both the living and the dead are now blended in perfect har- 
mony for the settlement of these great questions. 

And what a commentary is all this on the violent assaults 
and charges made on it before the convention assembled. — 
With some, its purposes were dark and treasonable ; whilst 
others, more charitable, attributed to it only extreme factious 
and partisan designs. During its deliberations, every body 
present and absent seemed to be looking out for some terrible, 
if not horrible explosion, or at least for some extreme and 
ultra demonstration, dangerous to the Union and to the coun- 
try. Well, when it is all over — when they have met, resolved 
and gone home again, what have they done ? Instead of some 
dreadful plot of disunion — of nullification — of secession — 
they have, at the worst, declared in favor of the Missouri Com- 
promise, of which Mr. Clay himself was the putative author, 
and certainly its most eloquent and powerful advocate; a 
compromise, re-affirmed by all those wise and good men who 
lent a sanction to the annexation of Texas — a compromise, 
which it was the last public and solemn advice of President 
Polk should be adopted on this very occasion. This, I repeat, 
is the very worst they have done. And they did not even de- 
clare that this should be the only thing with which they would 
be content — no ultimatum — no extreme proposition — but a 
her and final declaration that they would acquiesce in any 



ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE. 343 

other adjustment which might give equal advantages to the 
south. 

With all these facts now faithfully recorded, has not the con- 
vention^ right to ask for its deliberations a fair and impartial 
consideration? Is it fair and impartial for any man or any 
party in the south to review it as a hostile assemblage of ene- 
mies, whose virtues they would be slow to discover, and reluc- 
tant to admit, or whose errors, if any, they would be sure to 
exaggerate? Is it fair or impartial to overlook or to suppress 
all public approval of the great truths set forth in the twenty- 
seven or twenty-eight resolutions of that body, and with mi- 
croscopic vision pick and cull from the address (which is al- 
ways on such occasions scrutinized with less care) all the real 
or imaginary imperfections which it may contain? The reso- 
lutions of every such assemblage are the veal text — authoritive 
and binding on its members — whilst the address is the mere 
speech sent out on the occasion — a sort of commentary of less 
authority, and indeed of such little authority, that it is often 
directed to be prepared by some individual or committee, after 
the adjournment has taken place. But these actings and 
doings of the convention arc those of your friends, not your 
enemies. Leave then the work of susjncious and prejudiced 
review to your adversaries in the north. They will do it suffi- 
ciently, no doubt. In Tennessee especially, how ought this 
whole subject to be treated and considered? It was made a 
party question most unfortunately during the last winter, when, 
as any body can now see, it ought not to have been. Shall it 
continue so to be? If it shall be so treated here, and in some 
others of the interested States, no eye hath seen, no mind yet 
contemplated the fearful destiny which awaits the south — 
all classes — all parties of the south — one as much as the 
other ; and when the fearful time shall come to which I now 
but faintly allude ; when northern purposes owing to our dis- 
sension shall be fully accomplished ; when nine hundred mil- 
lions of your slave property shall be taken from you; when nine 
hundred millions more shall be lost by you in the depreciation 
of your lands ; when a mortal struggle shall be going on 
amongst you for the extinction of one race or the other, (for 
the north is drawing a cordon around you,) then we or our 



344 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTIIER SPEECHES. 

children on whom these calamities may fall, will look back and 
curse the hour, the infatuated hour, that ever made this a 
party question. In Tennessee, I say again, then, no public 
press ought to make it one. Every man that patronises any 
newspaper evidently disposed to do so, ought to go direct to 
its editor and require him to forbear ; should demand it of him, 
especially as due to the safety of his property, to the peace and 
security of his family. 

The whig party of the State owes it to itself to review its 
former course upon this great and vital question. They now 
stand greatly separated from their friends in other States, 
many of whom they saw here, mingling their counsels freely 
with those of the other party, in a common cause and a com- 
mon danger. What was the result ? They saw Judge Sharkey 
and others from different States, they saw the Tennessee demo- 
cratic delegates through Mr. Nicholson and myself, advising 
a more conservative and conciliatory course then many, nay a 
majority were disposed to pursue. They applauded and ap- 
proved, but did not and would not come to our assistance. 
How then can they be justified in complaining that anything 
went wrong in the convention ; that the resolutions were 
wrong ; that the address was wrong. It does not lie in their 
mouths to say it, so long as they stood aloof and would not 
come into convention to help us to make them better. But 
when the next convention shall again convene, as I greatly 
fear it may have to do, I sincerely hope that they will be there; 
both parties in full attendance ; to help by their joint counsels 
and joint wisdom to save the south, the Constitution and the 
Union. The great work is now begun. There is too much 
probability that the present bill presented by the Committee of 
Thirteen being amended and passed through the Senate, will be 
rejected in the House, and that the House bill, admitting Cali- 
fornia but composing and settling no other of the slavery ques- 
tions, will pass that body and be rejected in the Senate. Thus 
Congress will have adjourned, having rejected both the Missouri 
Compromise and the present bill. If this should be so then surely 
all men of all parties will be willing to unite in that great 
work, at a crisis so imminent as will then exist. If not, then 



ADDRESS TO THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE. 345 

all is lost ; all of greatness or of glory which the south ever 
dreamed of in her future destiny. 

But I must close this letter ; my object has been to explain 
the position assumed by Mr. Nicholson and myself in the min- 
ority report, in favor of the present bill pending before Con- 
gress, with amendments. A position assumed by us under a 
fall conviction, that such were the sentiments of a majority of 
those whom we represented. Also to vindicate and sustain 
the action of the convention in the series of twenty-odd reso- 
lutions which they adopted. How far I may have succeeded 
you and the public must judge. Very respectfully, 

AARON V. BROWN. 



ADDRESS 

Of Ex-Gov. Aaron V. Brown, to the Law Class of tin Univer- 
sity, at Lebanon, February loth, 1853. 



Gentlemen : — I salute you as candidates for admission into 
one of our most learned and attractive professions : one that 
in every civilized age, has exerted the greatest influence on 
society, furnishing to human liberty some of her ablest cham- 
pions, and to religion many of her most eminent votaries. It 
has stamped its peculiar image so distinctly on nearly every 
country in Europe, that the bar, without any great hyperbole, 
may be almost denominated the nation. In England especially, 
no sovereign ever has been, or will be able to exempt himself, 
in any great degree, from dependence on this profession. 
From it must be selected his Lord Chancellors, the equity and 
common law Judges of his superior courts, his ecclesiastical 
and colonial Judges, and a long train of other judical func- 
tionaries. From it also have come her most eminent states- 
men and orators, who have immortalized her Parliaments, and 
made British diplomacy the most successful in the world. 

The influence and triumphs of the legal profession have 
been scarcely less signal in our country. In the old Congress 
that framed the Constitution, and in the State conventions that 
ratified it, the men of this profession stood out in advance, 
overpeering all others in extent and variety of learning, and in 
that bold and thrilling eloquence which the occasion so much 
demanded. If the mind flashes over a few brilliant names as 
exceptions to these remarks, because they are exceptions, 
they but confirm the well merited compliment to the founders 



ADDRESS TO LAW STUDENTS. 347 

of the Republic. It has furnished every President of the 
United States except two, Generals Washington and Taylor. 
It has supplied a majority of every Cabinet, and a long line 
of Attorneys General. So it has done all the Judges of the 
United States, as well as of the respective States. 

Such, gentlemen, is the profession, and such its honors 
and emoluments, which you are proposing to enter. Its prizes 
are large and captivating. Ambition itself could not ask that 
they should be more so. But they are not to be won as in a 
lottery, by mere chance. If they were, they would scarcely 
be worth the winning. If they were, dolts might be Lord 
Chancellors, and blockheads fill the places of a Marshall, a 
Kent, or a Story. There must be no chances reckoned on in 
the case. They must be the certain rewards of patience, in- 
dustry, perseverance, and above all, of a high resolve of the 
mind, to be content with no mediocrity of attainment. Who 
would be contented with mere mediocrity ? To throng the 
courts without a brief, a fee, or a client, and above all, not to 
deserve one ! By you, who have the good fortune to enjoy the 
advantages of an institution like this, the very word mediocrity 
should be scorned. Nothing less than a proficiency which 
would qualify you for any office or station in life, should satisfy 
your lofty aspirations. Some of you may have to plead in the 
courts where the full, clear and persuasive eloquence of a 
Grundy still holds its magic spells over the hearts of his 
hearers ; or where the fervid genius and profound learning of 
a Haywood, or the close and rigid logic of Crabb and William 
L. Brown, would rebuke that indolence which would fall below 
the master spirits of the law of an age just gone by. I allude 
to them because they are now no more, and because the voice 
of eulogy cannot be mistaken for that of adulation. In this 
age you must not, you dare not fall below such high standards. 
It is the age of progress — of improvement in every science, 
in every art, in every profession. He who stands still, or idly 
lingers on the way, will find the tide sweeping by him 
leaving him " high and dry," on the shore of neglect and 
disappointment. It is this very progress which has founded 
the present institution; which has drawn to it our most emi- 



348 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

nent scholars and jurists, and opened up to you and for you 
advantages nowhere surpassed in our country. 

In former times, even the men whose names I have called up 
for your just emulation, enjoyed no such facilities as are 
now daily spread before you. In some crowded office, and 
under the guidance of some preceptor in full practice, and 
therefore obliged to be neglected — with access to fewer 
books than are now sometimes referred to in a single case — 
they groped their way through the intricate mazes of early 
study. But with stout hearts and noble resolves they struggled 
on, until in spite of every obstacle, they attained an eminence 
worthy of all imitation. Contrast your present condition with 
theirs. In a quiet and secluded village, already remarkable 
for the literary and moral habits of its population, with pro- 
fessors distinguished for their ability, and unencumbered by 
other engagements to distract and divert their attention, and 
with access to vast stores of legal knowledge, you have the 
means which enable you to walk forth from this institution 
the compeers, the proud rivals of the graduates from any other 
institution in America. 

I take it for granted that you stand in need of no persua- 
sion to induce you to profit by the favorable means here af- 
forded. I suppose you to have come here for that very pur- 
pose, and not because you did not know very w r ell where else 
to go, or what else to do, than to while away a session or two 
at the law school at Lebanon ! I feel that I have before me 
to-day no such genteel idler, in whose soul the fires of genius 
and ambition have been extinguished so early in his career. 
The indolent lounger, with his volatile and frivolous mind, has 
no business with this profession. He had better turn aside at 
once to the lighter pursuits and employments of the day. He 
who undertakes to master this first and noblest of human 
sciences, must bring to the great work the fixed and unaltera- 
ble determination to be emphatically and truly a student of the 
law. He must not count on merely skimming over it, com- 
prehending a few only of its general principles, and acquiring 
some slight familiarity with its details in practice. No, he must 
dive into its hidden depths — penetrate deep into its secret arca- 
na, and bring up the pure and sparkling water from the very 
bottom of the well of knowledge. 



ADDRESS TO LAW STUDENTS, 349 

The entrance or start upon a hard and intricate study liie 
this, is both irksome and discouraging. But the rich rewards 
that lie before you and beckon you onward, should rouse you up 
to vigorous and incessant effort. What other profession is there 
less intricate and difficult which can yield you an equal or larger 
amount of remuneration ? What one will advance you to 
higher stations of honor and profit ? W T hat one can open to 
you a wider field of benevolence and usefulness, inscribing your 
name high upon the scroll of fame as one of the great benefac- 
tors of mankind ? But the start is not so difficult as it at first 
appears. He who gazes on the lofty mountain peering up before 
him, can scarcely believe that he can ever scale and pass its 
towering summit. But he approaches it by degrees. One 
lesser elevation after another is overcome, until at last he finds 
himself at the top, breathing its pure atmosphere, and won- 
dering by what easy gradations he had attained it. 

In the study of the law, there is generally too great a desire 
to hurry through with it, and make an advent as soon as pos- 
sible into the arena of its practice. Precipitancy has often 
proven fatal to sensitive and ingenuous minds. A few blunders 
in practice, or a mortifying failure in the argument of some 
important case, rashly engaged in, may be followed by chagrin 
and disappointment which may never be overcome. No per- 
suasion of friends, no counsel of the wise and experienced, 
can restore him to confidence in himself, and he abandons in 
mortification a profession which, with less eagerness, he might 
have honored and adorned. How much better for him not to 
have laid aside his elementary books so soon, nor to have hur- 
ried so hastily into the court in order to make a premature dis- 
play in harranguing a jury. He should have remained con- 
tented in the retirement of study, " biding his time," until 
ripe in his full course of preparation, he could have realized 
his own expectations and those of his waiting and admiring 
friends. That full course of preparation will admit of no pre- 
cipitancy with impunity. It takes too wide a range. It em- 
braces law in its widest and most comprehensive sense. The 
laws of God — of nature — of nations — of independent States ; 
under the latter, the common law — the statute law — constitu- 
tional law — the commercial law — the law of real estate — of 



350 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHE3. 

descents — the criminal law. In fine, it embraces all laws, 
human and divine, and challenges the profound study of 3-ears 
to understand and expound them. Beside the subjects of direct 
and intense study, there are others, collateral or incidental to 
them, that must by no means be neglected. 

The law student should make himself well acquainted with 
history, ancient and modern. It is there that he must learn 
the origin of those laws which are the daily subjects of his 
meditation — the occasions which called them forth, and their 
beneficial or injurious tendencies after their enactment. It 
should not be studied, however, as a mere chronology of past 
events. In what year some battle was fought, or at what pre- 
cise period an illustrious Prince was called to the throne, can 
be of but little importance compared with the great principles 
by which he advanced his people to prosperity and happi- 
ness, or sunk them still lower in the scale of despotism. It 
should be read in order to trace out the rise and progress of 
our most important institutions — the advances of mankind at 
different periods of the world, in education, in the sciences, in 
the arts, both useful and ornamental. The study of history is 
eminently important to the student of law in our own country. 
Our form of government, and the institutions which it estab- 
lishes, have been so recently founded, that no statesman, no 
judge, no lawyer, no man of education should be deficient in 
their history. He should especially be familiar with our revo- 
lutionary history ; with the discussions and events that led to 
the first confederation of the colonies ; with the debates on 
the formation of the Federal Constitution, and its subsequent 
adoption by the States ; with the debates in Congress on the 
leading topics since that period. All these illustrate the true 
nature of our government, and can scarcely fail to inspire us 
with the warmest sentiments of admiration and devotion to it. 
It is upon such studies as these, that we have to rely much 
for the arrest of that spirit of change and innovation which is 
one of the characteristics of the present period of our national 
existence. We are no enemy to real improvement in every 
thing: in law, in jurisprudence, and in government. But we 
should advance with caution, and nothing but the surest con- 
victions should tempt us to leave the beaten track of our an- 



ADDRESS TO LAW STUDENTS. 351 

cestors. The founders of the republic attempted to raise bar- 
riers against this fondness for change, by the adoption of con- 
stitutions so difficult of amendment and alteration, that such 
could seldom be effected without a general concurrence of 
public sentiment. How long these barriers will prove sufficient 
it is impossible to tell. The close observer can distinctly see 
that reverence for constitutional law is fast diminishing, and 
every pretext for its evasion is eagerly adopted. The device 
of enlarging and expanding that instrument by the doctrine of 
constructive powers, has proved successful on several import- 
ant occasions, and the insidious avowal, now too distinctly an- 
nounced to be overlooked or disregarded, that there is a law 
above and higher than the Constitution, threatens to abrogate 
it altogether. These two doctrines, whilst they differ in the 
mode of getting clear of constitutional restraints, yet agree in 
their results. Great liberality of construction, it is well known, 
will give to it much of that elasticity which the disorganizing 
spirit of the age seems imperiously to demand. It would then 
admit of nearly every thing which a licentious and dominant 
majority might demand. Still, cases may arise and have arisen, 
where latitudinarian doctrines would prove inadequate to 
the purposes designed ; for there are some things so plainly 
incorporated, such as " the protection of life, liberty and pro- 
perty," that no sophistry can evade them. It is then that the 
higher law — that new invention of the age, interposes, in order 
to complete the fatal work of constitutional evasion and dese- 
cration. Under this doctrine, if it should practically and finally 
prevail, the whole structure of the American government must 
inevitably perish. The sentiment now often and publicly in- 
voked, that, in a free government like ours organic or consti- 
tutional laws are inconsistent with the rights of majorities, who 
ought to have the power to pass all laws whatever, will then 
supersede all constitutions. The rapid growth and dangerous 
progress of this latter sentiment, may be seen in the public 
odium now heaped upon that clause of the Constitution which, 
erects the veto power as the only barrier against invasions 
upon the rights of the minority. So great is that odium that 
many demand its total obliteration from the Constitution ; whilst 

others are content with its practical annihilation by withhold- 

24 



352 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

ing its exercise, even to prevent the most obvious violation of 
that sacred instrument. I advert to this alarming state of 
things, not in reference to the prevailing conflicts of parties, 
but to impress it on your minds to read thoroughly the consti- 
tutional history of your country, so that you may form a just 
and enlightened opinion upon them. You will find in your 
researches, that the school in which was taught the doctrine of 
a close and rigid construction of the Constitution, was founded in 
that part of the country that then swayed the sceptre. It was 
taught, against all the blandishments of power, exhibiting the 
rare example of a triumphant majority seeking to erect bulwarks 
around the citadel of the Constitution to protect it against 
their own invasions. They looked forward to the time when 
the republic would probably extend from ocean to ocean : when 
instead of thirteen, some thirty or forty States might compose 
it. They knew not what great and diversified interests might 
conflict with each other; and when the one or the other pre- 
vailed, they knew not what consuming fires of revenge and 
hatred might be generated in the conflict. But this they knew, 
that the Constitution that had been framed, if honestly con- 
fined to the powers conferred, would do as well for many, as 
for a few States : for States reposing on the shores of the 
Pacific, as well as those that stretched along the Atlantic ; and 
that if the Constitution secured all alike in the enjoyment of 
life, liberty and property, no conflict of interests, no diversity 
of climate could retard them in the march of greatness and 
glory. The sceptre of power, however, has now passed over 
to another region. Its transfer to the North should bring no 
regret, if the new hands that are now to wield it will recog- 
nise the doctrine of a strict adherence to the plain letter and 
obvious meaning of the Constitution. But unfortunately they 
exhibit few signs of doing so, but promulgate with daring bold- 
ness that there should be no veto against the vote of a ma- 
jority of Congress, and no Constitution when in conflict with 
the higher law of the consciences of those who hold abstract 
opinions in opposition to its provisions. 

But, gentlemen, the acquisition of a thorough knowledge of 
the law is scarcely more important than an easy, graceful and 
pleasing manner of communicating it to others. You will 



ADDRESS TO LAW STUDENTS, 353 

have spent years almost in vain, if you have neglected the art 
of speaking. I do not mean that mouthing faculty that can 
barely communicate an idea, but that noble faculty which at 
once arrests the attention and wins the favor of your hearers. 
To speak well you must think well ; you must comprehend 
clearly the great points of your case, and concentrate the 
highest powers of your mind upon them. What you compre- 
hend clearly, you will be apt to express well; and what you 
feel strongly yourself, you will most probably urge with power 
and eloquence on others. The finished orator at the bar, in 
the pulpit, in the senate chamber, or the lecture room, must 
be master of logic and rhetoric. Logic is the science, rhetoric 
the pleasing manner or style, and eloquence the matter of 
speaking. The two former are therefore auxiliary to the last, 
and the three combined have exalted man above all other at- 
tainments and achievements in life. 

By eloquence we do not mean mere words or sentences of 
fine language void of solid sense ; a magnificent display of 
gestures and apostrophes without point or meaning ; but that 
eloquence which we recommend to your unceasing study is 
founded on thought, on sentiment, expressed with the terseness 
of logic, the grace of rhetoric, and which kindles up and then 
controls all the hidden fires and passions of our nature. How 
to acquire this highest, I had almost said this more than human 
art, I know not, but by reading often and studying closely the 
orations of its great masters. I disclaim all mere imitations 
of either the dead or the living. If there be eloquence in you, 
nature will bring it out in some form or manner that will be 
your own. Still, by consulting the great masters we are assisted 
in attaining to that standard which Cicero has laid down, " to 
speak to the purpose — to speak clearly and distinctly — to 
speak gracefully." The selection of models, not to make but 
to improve your style, should be left to your own peculiar taste 
and judgments. And why should you not have models for this 
purpose ? The painter as well as the sculptor has his. The 
architect has his. Why then may not the orator go to Greece 
and Rome, to England and France, or to America, for models 
which have filled the world with admiration ? Demosthenes 
and Cicero among the ancients were so eloquent, that they 



354 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

have inspired eloquence in all who describe them. In England, 
Burke, Chatham, Fox, Sheridan and Lord Brougham ; in Ire- 
land, Curran, Grattan, Emmet ; in the United States, Patrick 
Henry, John Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, William Wirt, 
John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Felix Grundy, and Henry 
Clay, are all admitted models of the highest order. I speak 
not of the pulpit models, whose fame has justly filled the civil- 
ized world, but whose theme so little resembles yours as not 
to be equally useful in their study. But I must be permitted 
to recommend to you those models frooi whom the pulpit ora- 
tors have drawn all their inspiration — the models of the Bible. 
Study these — the Prophets — the Apostles — our Saviour's great 
sermon on the mount. To say nothing of their moral effect, 
they will be found to improve, enlarge, and to exalt your foren- 
sic efforts. But remember, after all your study under the best 
models, the great secret of being eloquent is to feel yourself, 
deeply and sincerely, what you wish to impress on others. To 
reach the heart your language must flow from the heart. That 
must dissolve first, or your language will fall cold and power- 
less on your hearers. Hence it is that the truly great orator 
must preserve his moral sensibilities pure and uncontaminated. 
He must love truth. He must honor virtue. He must hate 
vice and all its deformities. He must sympathise truly and 
deeply with the weak and the oppressed. He must loath des- 
potism and tyranny in every form and shape in which they have 
ever oppressed mankind. In short, to be great he must be 
eloquent, and to be eloquent he must be good. With such 
elements of character, he will speak as an oracle and a pro- 
phet. Like a strong man he will pull down the pillars of pre- 
judice, and his utterance will be like the stone hurled from an 
engine. To the sentiments and will of such a man all hearts 
are surrendered in profound obedience and homage. 

To cultivate an art so essential to the profession you have 
selected — an art so ethereal, so God-like — should challenge 
your highest assiduity. No difficulties should appal, no indo- 
lence retard you. Demosthenes was no orator by nature. 
Cicero studied long and hard under the best masters. Chat- 
ham practiced all his life before his mirror. Lord Brougham 
rehearsed a single oration for six weeks before he delivered it. 



ADDRESS TO LAW STUDENTS. 355 

Whitefielcl, and Wesley, and many others, had to pass the 
same laborious pilgrimage, and richly were they rewarded by 
a deathless name, an immortality of honor. 

Gentlemen, my work would be but half accomplished, were 
I to leave you with these observations on the mere study of 
your profession. Much, therefore, remains to be submitted to 
you in relation to its pursuit and practice. When you shall 
have acquired the requisite amount of learning, and passed 
that ordeal which attests it, you will enter upon the great the- 
atre of the world to act a noble part, I hope, in the grand 
drama of life. It will be to you an important and critical mo- 
ment in your existence. Your friends are now looking with 
solicitude upon 3'ou whilst engaged in the prosecution of your 
studies. They will watch with intense interest your advent 
into the world. You will have to guard in some degree against 
their anxiety to precipitate you into the arena in cases not 
suited to display, or' on occasions not well calculated to enable 
you to realize their expectations. 

Before you begin, you must selectyour residence, your home. 
In doing this, you will sometimes be controlled by circumstan- 
ces, so obvious and proper, that they need not be here alluded 
to. But, as a general rule, I would say, strike for the capital! 
for some great commercial city, or some densely populated re- 
gion, of wealth, intelligence and trade. In other words, go 
where there is something to do. Fear no obstacle. Cower to 
no dread of competition. If there be great lawyers already 
there, they will furnish you with high standards of rivalry and 
emulation. If they seem too numerous, remember that the 
demands of political life and the high honors of the bench will 
be constantly thinning them out. Besides these, bear it in 
mind that successful practice brings opulence, which is sure to 
be followed by that desire of ease which will make room for 
fresh candidates for fortune and for fame. Success in a loca- 
tion so selected is the more desirable, because it will become 
your permanent residence for life. You will not then be com- 
pelled to move from the village in which you started, because 
you have outgrown its business and population. It is one of 
the great laws of genius and ambition to seek for situations 



35G 



CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 



commensurate with their conscious power of usefulness and 
di.-play. 

Having selected your place of residence, your next step will 
be to procure you an office. This will be your sanctum sancto- 
rum, at least one room of it, where no genteel idler is to be ad- 
mitted to while away an indolent hour, or to kill time at an 
innocent game of cards or back-gammon, and, least of all, to 
take a " gentlemanly spree" in term time or out of term time. 
Into that consecrated place let none enter save yourself, your 
books and your clients. Receive your friends cordially in 
some other room, and when the demands of social life are sat- 
isfied, withdraw to your place of study, with no apprehension 
that either the wise or the good will ever be dissatisfied with 
your devotion to business. The time spent at lawyers' offices, 
frequently, in idle and unprofitable discourse and amusement, 
if devoted to earnest and indefatigable research, would be suf- 
ficient to make even the dullest of our attorneys proficients in 
one of the noblest sciences in the world. 

Your residence chosen and your office selected, you should 
betray no over anxiety to begin. Wait until a proper cause 
and occasion shall demand it. Having made your arrange- 
ments for a lifetime, and having a living consciousness within 
you that you possess the high elements necessary to ensure 
success, you can afford to wait until some case of insulted 
virtue or down-trodden poverty, shall demand your services. — 
At such a call, walk forth in the majesty of your profession, 
and deal the blows of a young giant upon the head of insolence 
and oppression. Catch the inspiration to do so from the 
strong sense of virtue and justice which is in your own heart, 
following the example of Patrick Henry and many others un- 
der similar circumstances. I repeat, catch the inspiration from 
your own bosom ; cultivate habitually the love of virtue, of 
right, of justice, of all the moral and religious duties. Scorn 
what is ignoble and vicious — detest fraud and hypocrisy — 
loathe oppression and tyranny in every form and shape you 
may meet with them, and denounce them with words that will 
burn and blast them. All this will be especially necessary, if 
you ever become effective and eloquent advocates. There is 
no branch of the profession so important as what is commonly 



ADDRESS TO LAW STUDENTS. 357 

called the criminal practice. It places the life and liberty of 
your fellow creatures in a good degree into your keeping. In 
capital cases, the responsibility is immense. The vital spark 
is committed to your hands, to preserve it alive or extinguish it 
forever One argument omitted, it is lost — one bold, fervid, 
eloquent appeal, and it is saved. To make such an appeal, 
the advocate must feel what he says ; it must come from him 
with a heart heaving, and a lip quivering with genuine emo- 
tion ; no sickly, morbid sentimentality will serve the great occa- 
sion. He must fully realize the prisoner's sad and helpless 
condition. The sweetness of human life — the value of the 
immortal soul that may be lost and ruined by being ushered 
prematurely into another world, with all its sins green and 
blooming upon it. Thoughts and sentiments like these, caught 
from the Book of God, that great fountain of knowledge of 
what pertains to the immortality and grandeur of tlje human 
soul, may enable him to rescue his victim from the deadly 
grasp of his pursuers. There is no prouder triumph, no 
sweeter pleasure than is enjoyed by the successful advocate 
in capital cases. He feels that he has baffled the malice of 
enemies ; that he has snatched his client sometimes from the 
very jaws of perjury ; that he has overcome the unconscious 
prejudices of both judge and jury; that by the magic power 
of eloquence he has converted the infuriated cry of the multi- 
tude for his crucifixion into a long and exulting shout at his 
deliverance. 

The natural ardor of youth will induce you to desire a large 
or full practice at the very beginning of your career. Such 
success would probably prove the grave of all high future emi- 
nence. Immersed in cases, many of them of no great impor- 
tance, either as it relates to the amount involved or the com- 
pensation to be received, you would necessarily be deprived of 
the opportunity still farther to prosecute your studies, and to 
dive yet deeper into the profound mysteries of the law. More 
especially should not this fullness of practice be sought by un- 
dervaluing yourselves in the acceptance of fees below the 
usual standard of compensation. You must ever remember 
that you have not repaired to the precincts of the court for the 
mere purpose of making money — of growing rich upon the er- 



358 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

rors and vices of mankind. In so ignoble an aim sheer ava- 
rice could have pointed out to you many avenues more likely to 
ensure your success. 

To a genteel competency, even to affluence, you will be en- 
titled; but let it be an agreeable incident, not the chief object 
of your toils and labors. The diffusion of knowledge, the ele- 
vation of the moral and intellectual standard of society, will 
be far more ennobling to you than the acquisition of sordid 
gain. It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to estimate the vast 
amount of useful knowledge disseminated by a good lawyer in 
the course of a long practice. His contributions to the judge 
on the bench will be felt and acknowledged by him in almost 
every trial. They will be seen in the profound attention of 
juries, and in their rendition of verdicts responsive to the intel- 
ligent and able argument he has submitted. The thousands 
who throng the courts from day to day, and who hang with 
eager attention on his speeches, return to their homes with 
minds improved, with sentiments of reverence and respect for 
the laws and institutions of their country enlarged, and with 
unbounded admiration for the advocate who has thus inspired 
them with fresh incentives to virtue and patriotism. To such 
a man the church looks when her altars are invaded. The 
State calls upon him when some great constitutional subject is 
to be expounded. Whatever individual in the city, the field, 
or the workshop, shall find his rights invaded or his liberty as- 
sailed, hastens to him for redress, and hails with confidence 
and joy the alacrity with which he espouses his cause. Such a 
man cannot remain a very long time in the practice. The 
flood-tide of public admiration will bear him upwards to the 
bench, to the senate chamber, or to be some high minister of 
State, enlarging the circle of his influence, and from a more 
commanding eminence, shedding the light of his devotion to 
learning, to justice and good morals farther and wider around 
him. 

Gentlemen, we indulge the pleasing hope that each one of 
you is emulous of the fame of such a lawyer as we have just 
described. We suppose you to have overcome all the obsta- 
cles of preparatory study — that you have been fortunate in 
the selection of your place of residence, and that clients begin 



ADDRESS TO LAW STUDENTS. 359 

to come freely if they do not throng about your office. Still 
we should be unkind and negligent of our duty on this occa- 
sion if we did not warn you that your trials and difficulties are 
not yet ended : a new class of difficulties, not at all resembling 
those we have heretofore considered. They result from the 
new associations which you must form on entering into the 
crowded temple of justice. Associations with' those clients 
whose causes you have espoused — with the witnesses on both 
sides who are to testify in them — with the judge who is to pre- 
side over them — with the opposite counsel whose duty it will be 
to baffle you if he can at every turn, and drive you and your 
cause if possible, with mortification and much cost, out of 
court. How delicate, how various, how responsible these new 
relations ! Were we to venture one general counsel, to be ap- 
plied to this wmole class thus grouped together, without enter- 
ing on details, we would simply advise, that with every body 
— clients, witnesses, judges and adversary counsel — on all 
occasions, in consultation, on trial, during periods of defeat 
and disaster as well as of success and triumph, resolve to be 
the gentleman; to speak like one — to act like one — to feel like 
one. If native instinct does not prompt you to do so, let your 
high and polished education, and the proud inspirations of 
your profession, hold you up to the lofty elevation of the true 
gentleman. The true gentleman never passes a deliberate in- 
sult, and never submits to one. He exhibits no insolence to 
inferiors, and never allows it from either equals or superiors. 
He never will exult over a prostrate enemy, nor in hours of 
defeat and disaster, which must some time come to all practi- 
tioners, allow himself to become peevish and insulting to those 
whose good fortune it may have been to succeed over him. 

Apply this general counsel in the first instance to your inter- 
course with your own clients. They have paid a most agreea- 
ble, perhaps the highest, compliment by selecting you as their 
advocate. Let then no clumsiness of narrative, no repetition 
of immaterial circumstances, no tediousness of detail in the 
history of their wrongs, induce you to grow impatient or un- 
civil. Had they the same powers of perspicuous condensation 
which it has cost you many years to acquire, they might not 
have stood in need of your services. Nor should you betray 



300 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SPEECHES. 

or feel irritation when, in the pendency of a cause, your anx- 
ious and excited client shall too frequently enquire when it will 
be tried, or whether witnesses who have importuned him for 
the privilege may stay away till the morrow, or shall trouble 
you with the gossip of the streets about the probable result of 
the trial. In all such cases, the true gentleman listens with 
patience, answers with brevity, but kindness, and then passes 
on to his business ; sympathizing with the anxiety of his cli- 
ent, who, whilst he annoys, yet honors and respects him. 

There is, however, a single case which challenges from the 
counsel no such mildness and forbearance. When in the origi- 
nal consultation, or in some subsequent disclosure, the client 
shall avow that he knows that justice is not on his side, but that 
he is seeking an advantage which accident has laid in his 
way, in order to gratify some hateful passion of his nature ; 
the pure-minded and virtuous advocate should spurn him from 
his presence, and withdraw from a cause rendered infamous 
by his own disclosures. We place upon record a case some- 
what analagous to the counsel we have here given. An emi- 
nent lawyer, the late Judge Kelly, had been employed in a suit 
of slander, then pending in one of our courts. On the day of 
trial, his client met him in the street as he was passing to the 
court room, and remarked to him, that it was not so much to 
argue the main merits of his cause, that he had employed him, 
as it was to abuse and vilify the opposite party ; " And so," re- 
plied the indignant counsel, "you mistook me for a blackguard, 
and I take you for a knave, and abandon you and your cause 
together." 

Let us next apply this general, I might say this universal 
rule, to your examination and comments upon the testimony of 
witnesses. For the time being, they are, in a great degree, in 
your power. They are in some sort your prisoners, and there- 
fore, upon the great law of honor, they are entitled to your for- 
bearance, if not your protection. Wantonly to assail them, is 
cowardice. You have a right, and it is your duty, to subject 
them to 1 lie most searching enquiry — one which, by its close- 
ness, would imply a high degree of suspicion. If, however, 
you detect no luridng or misleading partiality — no faint foot- 
prints of perjured knavery — having passed the ordeal of your 



ADDRESS TO LAW STUDENTS. 3G1 

genius and talents, the witness is fairly entitled to your liberal 
and generous comments. You should cast no ungenerous 
sneers at him because he happens to be a witness on the oppo- 
site side. You may be wounding a sensibility as tender and 
delicate as your own, and inflicting a stain upon a character 
dear to him as life, and on a family whose head and represen- 
tative he is, which no time can obliterate. If, however, the 
witness comes before the court under suspicious circumstan- 
ces, and manifests little or no reverence for the high sanctions 
under which he is testifying — if he fairly subjects himself to 
the imputation of having given false testimony, then hold him 
up to the scorn and detestation of all mankind. Let no words 
of burning denunciation be left unuttered, which might prove 
a warning to others. 

That you should always act the part of a polished and fin- 
ished gentleman with your brethren of the profession, is so 
clear a duty that it need scarcely be mentioned. That you 
should do so with your adversary during the progress of a 
cause, is of the highest importance. Never take offence at 
what he may say or do, unless you are well satisfied that it was 
intended. He feels bound to exhibit much zeal in behalf of, 
and in some sort to identify himself with, his client. So do 
you; and whilst both shall do so within the bounds of profes- 
sional courtesy, no offence ought to be taken by either. But 
it is a great law of the profession, that each attorney shall be 
left to fix for himself that degree of identity, and his adversary 
is never allowed to exceed it by attempting to attach to him 
any odium that may have fallen on his cause in the progress of 
the trial. Such an attempt, for its intrinsic injustice, would 
place you beyond the pale of professional honor, and ought to 
strike your name from the time-honored and unsullied roll, on 
which stand recorded the most illustrious names of ancient 
and of modern time. 

But there is no one to whom uniform deference and respect 
should be so perpetually manifested as to the court. The 
Judge is the representative of that noble science which you 
venerate and honor. The ermine which adorns him should 
admonish you never to forget what is due to his exalted station 
and office. Approach him without presumptuous familiarity 



362 CONGRESSIONAL AND OTHER SrEECHES. 

on the one hand, or servile humiliation on the other. Your 
own self-respect would forbid the latter, whilst the former 
might call down upon you the most painful and mortifying re- 
pulse. In all your addresses to him be brief, lucid and to the 
point. Do not, with a dogged pertinacity, travel over ground 
which others have gone over before you; and above all, do not 
deluge the court with principles, and cases, and authorities 
which no one has been known to deny for the last half a cen- 
tury ! Act towards him on the fair and reasonable presump- 
tion that he has at least some tolerable knowledge of the law, 
and, therefore, it cannot be necessary to torture him with such 
J i .pent recurrence to the mere rudiments of the profession. 
Pass over all these. March directly up to the strong points of 
the case. Seize upon them — grapple with them — illustrate 
them by great principles — fortify them by authorities, and thus 
bear your client and his cause triumphantly through the court. 
And now, gentlemen, I have concluded all that my leisure 
allowed me to prepare, and all indeed that it seemed to me 
the occasion demanded. I have only to add, yonder is the 
Temple.' Her gates are wide open to receive you. A long line 
of great and good men have passed in before you. The light 
of their footsteps will guide you to her altars. These learned 
professors who have instructed you so carefully, this throng of 
admiring friends, and above all, your own high resolves, in- 
vite you to enter in and receive, as I hope each of you may do, 
her highest honors and her richest rewards. 



PART III. 

MESSAGES, REPORTS, AND OTHER DOCUMENTS. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



Of Hon. A. V. Brown, delivered on the 15th October, 1845, on 
his Instalment as Governor of Tennessee. 



Gentlemen of the Senate 

and House of Representatives : 
In presenting myself before you on the present occasion, 1 
feel very deeply impressed by the solemnities which we have 
just witnessed, The transitions of power from one dynasty to 
another in the old world have rarely been effected without rev- 
olution and bloodshed. There, the triumph of the one party 
is too often the destruction of the other, leaving the great 
masses of the people but little benefited by the change of do- 
minion. In our own free and happy form of government it is 
wholly different. Here, the great popular principle is recog- 
nized in its full force, "that all power is inherent in the peo- 
ple, and all free governments are founded on their authority 
and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness." It is a 
remarkable fact, that this was the first great truth uttered by 
the illustrious men who framed the Constitution of Tennessee. 
It seems to have been uppermost in their minds, and to have 
burst forth in advance of all their noble and patriotic senti- 
ments. 

It is under the influence of this cardinal principle that we 
have just witnessed the surrender of all the executive power 



306 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

and authority of the State by my distinguished predecessor ; a 
surrender so peaceably and promptly made that it must consti- 
tute one of the highest eulogiums on our representative form 
of government. But in presenting myself before you and this 
large assembly, for the purpose of assuming the high office 
from which he has just retired, I must be permitted to express 
my deep and abiding gratitude to those by whom it has been 
bestowed. To a station so exalted and responsible I should 
never have aspired, but for the unanimous call of my fellow- 
citizens in convention assembled. Most earnestly did I desire 
the nomination of some other individual more able to vindicate 
and sustain the great principles involved in the recent elec- 
tion. Not that I then was or ever could be insensible to the 
high honor of presiding over such a noble and gallant State as 
Tennessee. She is the land of my youth, the home of my 
manhood. I have traversed her in all her borders; and I feel 
to-day a proud consciousness that I love her, not more for her 
physical grandeur, her lofty mountains, her deep majestic riv- 
ers, her wide luxuriant valleys, than for the moral excellence of 
her brave, and hardy, and industrious people. To preside over 
such a State, and to contribute any thing valuable to the pros- 
perity of such a people, ought to kindle up the fires of a virtu- 
ous ambition in the bosom of any man living. But, gentle- 
men, whilst I freely admit the full influence of an emotion like 
this, I trust you will allow me to declare the most unfeigned 
distrust of my abilities to discharge the duties of the high of- 
fice which I am about to assume. Fidelity and zeal in the dis- 
charge of those duties, and the most anxious and earnest de- 
sire to advance the welfare and happiness of every individual 
member of our beloved Commonwealth, without reference to 
the party to which he may belong, must be the only pledge 
which I can offer my countrymen for this distinguished mark 
of their preference and confidence. 

The duties to which I allude are embraced in the compre- 
hensive but solemn oath which you will presently cause to be 
administered, faithfully " to support the Constitution of this 
State and of the United States." In general terms, to support 
these, is to support all the high principles of rational liberty 
and representative government — the liberty of speech — the 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 367 

freedom of the press — the rights of conscience, of property 
and reputation — the purity of our elections, and the implicit 
obedience of the representative to the will of his constituents. 
It is not, however, in relation to these great cardinal principles 
of government that the practical difficulty of the American 
statesman may be expected to arise. The oath which you are 
about to administer to support not only the Constitution of the 
State of Tennessee, but of the United States, imposes a double 
allegiance, challenging my most unreserved obedience to both 
governments. It is the danger of collision between them that 
constitutes the precise point of difficulty and embarrassment. 
In anticipation of the bare possibility of such an event, it be- 
comes my duty to declare the principles on which I should feel 
bound to act — to declare them here in your presence — to de- 
clare them now, at the very beginning of my administration, 
and at the very moment when I contract the obligation of this 
double allegiance. 

Rightly understood and fairly construed, I hold collisions be- 
tween Federal and State Governments to be utterly impossi- 
ble. The wise men who framed the former, seem to have stu- 
diously and incessantly guarded against such an event. They 
knew well that in the political as well as in the physical world, 
where equal powers meet, a fearful and dreadful pause must 
ensue. They therefore weighed and considered with profound 
anxiety every line and word inserted into our Federal Consti- 
tution. In the States to which this instrument was submitted 
for adoption, the most distinguished statesmen and jurists em- 
ployed all their talents and learning in an animated and fear- 
less discussion of its provisions. The result of all this care 
and patriotic labor, was to throw additional safeguards around 
the sovereignty of the States, by declaring that " the powers 
not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor pro- 
hibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respect- 
ively, or to the people." 

This amendment should have rendered every thing easy and 
harmonious in the operations of our political system. It should 
have established it as a maxim in the creed of every American 
statesman, never to claim for the Federal Government any 
power which was not expressly granted in the Constitution, or 

25 



36S MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

which did not necessarily or properly belong to the execution 
of an express power. It was for the establishment of this 
great rule of construction, that Jefferson and Madison, and the 
Virginia Resolutions of 1798, so earnestly contended. 

But unfortunately for the country, another school of politi- 
cians rose up co-eval with the Constitution, insisting on an ad- 
ditional class of implied powers, with no limitation but the 
wild discretion of Congress, and guided by no object but the 
vague and indefinite notion of " the general welfare." 

It has been this difference of opinion as to the mode of con- 
struing the Federal Constitution, that has laid the foundation 
of all the party struggles of this country. The establishment 
of a United States Bank, the enactment of a Protective Tariff, 
without regard to revenue, the distribution of the proceeds of 
the sales of the public lands, the assumption of the debts of 
the States, the suppression of the liberty of speech, under the 
pretext of preserving the freedom and purity of our elections, 
have all depended on a latitudinous construction of the Fed- 
eral Constitution. The present occasion will by no means al- 
low of an extensive reference to any of these subjects; but 
the questions of a Bank and the Tariff enter so deeply into 
the political discussions of the day, that I may be pardoned 
for submitting a few observations on them. 

In relation to the Bank, the great fact that no power for its 
creation is to be found in express terms in the Constitution, has 
often been adverted to. But another fact, scarcely less impor- 
tant, has been strangely neglected. That fact is, that the 
journals of the convention show clearly that such a power was 
often asked for and as often refused, in every form in which it 
could be presented. There is a potency in this recorded fact, 
second only to the silence of the Constitution, which ought to 
have long since overthrown all the feeble implications so much 
relied on by the advocates of such an institution. Beside this, 
a power so vast and mighty as this is, should never have been 
left to mere implication at all. It should have stood out in 
advance of all others, and have been rendered undoubted by 
its boldness and conspicuity. 

It was but a poor evasion of the constitutional objection to 
have located the bank in the District of Columbia. If Con- 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 369 

gress has the power of exclusive jurisdiction over that Dis- 
trict, it must be for it as well as in it — local in its objects, and 
territorial in its action. 

To seize on a power granted ibr such limited and special pur- 
poses, and expand it over a mighty continent, is a shameless 
perversion, a fraudulent usurpation — far more wicked than the 
boldest interpolation of that instrument could be. The pre- 
tence so often relied on, that a bank was necessary and proper, 
(and therefore constitutional,) as the fiscal agent of the gov- 
ernment, is fully exposed by the fact that the bank never was 
charged with the collection or disbursement of the revenue at 
all. The most that could ever have been said of its fiscal 
agency would have been that it was charged with the simple 
custody of the funds during the brief period between their col- 
lection and disbursement. I repeat, therefore, what I have be- 
fore said in another place, that this alleged fiscal necessity is 
a false pretence, for the experiment has now been made and 
the fact tested, that the government has, and can collect, keep 
and disburse its own revenues, without the aid of any bank 
whatever — an experiment which Washington adopted by 
signing the act of 1792, which Mr. Jefferson subsequently re- 
commended and declared to be entirely practicable. 

But I forbear any further observations on the subject of a 
bank. I have referred to it only for the purpose of illustrating 
my opinions more fully as to the mode of construing one of the 
constitutions which I am presently to swear that I will faith- 
fully support. I say nothing of the expediency — nothing of its 
dangerous and corrupting tendencies — nothing of that full and 
ample refutation, which time and experience have given to 
the argument, that exchanges could not be regulated, nor a 
sound, uniform currency be given to the country, without such 
an institution. All these topics belong not to the occasion, nor 
is their discussion necessary in order to make known my opin- 
ions to my fellow-citizens of the State. 

In relation to the Tariff, I have always maintained that its 
rates were too high, its discriminations unjust, and that it 
ought to be modified and greatly reduced. The agricultural 
States have suffered much already, and nothing but the warmly 
cherished hope that it will soon be repealed or greatly modified, 



370 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

has subdued the murmurs of the consuming classes. I am 
fully aware of the arguments usually employed to prove that 
the people, so far from being injured, are really benefited by 
the high duties of the Tariff; but I know not which most to 
condemn — the impudence which could fabricate, or the credu- 
lity which could be imposed upon by them. Strong as this lan- 
guage may seem, I nevertheless entertain no hostility to the 
manufactures of the United States. I cherish for the valuable 
and important ones the very highest regard, and would cheer- 
fully give to all any advantage incidental to the collection of 
our national revenue. I look forward with confidence to the 
next Congress of the United States to make such modifica- 
tions and alterations in the present Tariff, as will make the 
system impartial and honest. That dissatisfaction which is 
now felt with its provisions in many quarters will then be sup- 
pressed, and those deep feelings of attachment which are cher- 
ished by nearly our whole population, in favor of the perpetua- 
tion of our blessed Union, will then acquire renewed energy 
and strength. 

Passing now, gentlemen, from those subjects on which the 
Federal and State governments have heretofore conflicted — 
and which lay too directly in my way to be omitted — I desire 
to submit a few observations in relation to our State govern- 
ment in particular. The condition of our affairs at home, 
challenges our most anxious attention. Our legislatures have 
yet much work to do to enable the people to enjoy all the bles- 
sings which a wise use of our free institutions can certainly se- 
cure. The preservation of our public credit stands out amongst 
the foremost of all our duties. Every liability, whether pru- 
dently or imprudently contracted, should be met with most 
scrupulous punctuality. In individul life many apologies may 
be urged for the want of this virtue which can find no parallel 
in the public engagements of a great and prosperous State like 
ours. To meet these liabilities with ease and without proba- 
ble inconvenience to the people, I shall, in some future com- 
munication to you, invite your attention to the establishment 
of a sinking fund adequate to the liquidation of our outstand- 
ing liabilities at the respective periods when they may fall due. 
The bank of the State has heretofore been much relied on, by 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 371 

the profitable operations of its concerns to meet these liabili- 
ties. However this may be, it cannot be amiss, in my opinion, 
to bring to its aid all the other means, short of additional tax- 
ation, which the State may have at its disposal. Amongst 
these, none can be more commendable than the most rigid 
economy in the administration of the government of the State. 
Economy in your own expenditures — in the length or dura- 
tion of your session — in the execution of the necessary public 
printing — and, in fact, in all the subjects of expenditures which 
are immediately connected with your legislative deliberations. 
Economy also in the executive and judicial departments, car- 
ried to the utmost extent compatible with the administration of 
justice and a faithful execution of the laws of the land. It 
will be a part of my duty under the Constitution, "to take care 
that the laws be faithfully executed," and I can assure you that 
no portion of my duty will be more agreeable than that which 
shall be performed in sustaining the public credit unimpaired 
at home and abroad, and in carrying out any system of en- 
lightened and just economy which your wisdom may advise. 

For many years the true friends of our liberal institutions 
have earnestly desired the establishment in our State of a wise 
and efficient system of public instruction. As friends to reli- 
gion and pure morals, they cannot repress the hope thatthe day 
is not far distant when every individual within our borders shall 
be capable of reading and understanding the Holy Scriptures, 
of transacting his own business, and, if necessary, of instruct- 
ing his own offspring in the rudiments of learning. I rejoice 
that a salutary feeling like this now seems to pervade our 
whole population, reaching every hamlet within the limits of 
our fertile and extensive territory. The patient and meritori- 
ous schoolmaster must now go abroad through the land on 
his errand of labor and love, dissipating the darkness in which 
so many minds are enveloped. It is on the education of the 
great mass of the people that our hopes of preserving and per- 
petuating our liberties must be founded. The knowledge to 
understand is as essential as the spirit to defend our republi- 
can institutions. With a continual and rapid increase of our 
numbers, what else can be expected but anarchy and misrule, 
unless we provide that science and literature shall maintain 



372 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS, 

their ascendency over all the sons and daughters of freedom, 
who are through future time to control the destinies of the re- 
public ! In the enlargement and improvement of our present 
partial system of education, I here offer freely, and with all my 
heart, my humble and unceasing co-operation. 

The present seems to be a suitable occasion to offer you my 
congratulations on the recent annexation of the republic of 
Texas to the United States. It has been accomplished by no 
invasion on the rights of Mexico, and in a manner which can 
give no just cause of offence to any other nation. It has been 
effected not by the sword, but a simple covenant or contract 
between coterminous nations, speaking the same language, 
accustomed to the same political institutions, and whose com- 
mon object was more effectually to secure to themselves all the 
blessings of civil and religious liberty. It ought to be regarded 
by the friends of freedom every-where but as another triumph 
of rational liberty and representative government over the de- 
grading despotisms of the old world. 

All the forebodings of evil to our country, as likely to occur 
from the consummation of the deed, have been signally disap- 
pointed. As yet we can discover no sign of the displeasure of 
Heaven in consequence of it. The earth is still putting forth 
its verdure, and blessing the husbandman with the rich abun- 
dance of its fruits, whilst peace, and health, and general pros- 
perity are everywhere smiling upon a great and prosperous 
people. Our bright and glorious Union, too, whose shattered 
and broken fragments were everywhere to have met the eye 
of the heart-stricken patriot, still bespans the continent, 
stretching, like the rainbow of hope and of promise, from the 
great inland seas of the North to the Gulf of Mexico in the 
South. The incredible prophesy, that a convention was to be 
held in this beautiful city, in order to accomplish the work of 
national destruction, has failed of its fulfillment, and the illus- 
trious citizen who was to have presided over the guilty assem- 
bly has gone down to the grave with his last prayer trembling 
on his lips for the Union and his country. 

With the acquisition of Texas and the successful mainten- 
ance of our title to Oregon, the United States will present a 
spectacle of territorial grandeur and magnificence unequaled 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 373 

in the world. In those who have charge of our negotiations 
in relation to the latter country, I have unbounded confidence ; 
and I believe they would not retain more of it, if they could, 
than we are fairly entitled to. I am equally certain they will 
never surrender one square acre of it to the unjust demand of 
any nation on the earth. Far distant as it may now seem to 
be, every revolving year will increase its importance to the 
hundred millions of freemen, who, at no distant day, will in- 
habit our continent. In the order of Providence, America may 
become the last asylum of liberty to the human family. Here 
then let us rear her loftiest temple. Let us lay its foundations 
deep and wide for the millions who in after ages may worship 
at her altars. 

I turn now from the contemplation of our wonderful and in- 
creasing magnificence, in order to remind you of a great and 
sad calamity which has befallen our common country since 
you were last assembled on an occasion like this. But a few 
months have passed away since you in particular, and the peo- 
ple of the United States generally, were called upon to mourn 
the departure from our midst of our most illustrious citizen. — 
The immortal spirit of Andrew Jackson, the patriot, the sol- 
dier and the statesman, has passed from time to eternity — de- 
voted, until he breathed his last breath, to the best interests of 
his country, which he had defended with heroic fortitude and 
courage, and served with a zeal more fervid with increasing 
years, he finished the great work which a wise Providence had 
chosen him to perform, and accomplished his destiny. Cling- 
ing to the faith and the hope which sustain the Christian whilst 
he is " passing through the dark valley of the shadow of death," 
he died at peace with the world, leaving behind him a bright 
and enduring example, worthy the imitation of future genera- 
tions. Hereafter, the song of the poet will be heard in praise 
of his memory — the pen of the historian will chronicle the 
deeds which he achieved, whilst the painter and the engraver 
will transmit his image to admiring millions. 

Let Tennessee, his own adopted State — Tennessee, whose 
armies he has so often covered with glory — Tennessee, whom 
he honored, and loved, and served so long and so faithfully — 
Tennessee, beneath whose green and hallowed sod his mortal 



374 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

remains have been deposited — let Tennessee rear him a mon- 
ument lasting as time — let it be planted in or near one of her 
most beautiful cities, on the bank of the noblest river in the 
world, where the millions who will pass for ages and ages to 
come, may pause and gaze upon it with wonder and admira- 
tion. 



MESSAGE 



Of Gov. Aaron V. Brown, Delivered to the General Assembly 

Nov. 1th, 1845. 



Gentlemen of the Senate 

and House of Representatives : 

In the 11th section of the 3rd article of the Constitution, it 
is made the duty of the Executive, from time to time, " to give 
the General Assembly information of the state of the govern- 
ment and recommend to their consideration such measures as 
he shall judge expedient." The performance of the duty by 
my predecessor at the commencement of your pressent session, 
seems not, in the former practice of the State, to supersede the 
necessity of a similar communication from me. Whilst it was 
the evident policy of those who engrafted this provision into 
the Constitution to establish the utmost freedom in the inter- 
change of opinion, it wisely left the legislature at full liberty 
finally to adopt or reject the recommendations of the Executive 

This fact greatly diminishes the responsibility of the present 
communication, made at a period so early in my administra- 
tion, as to furnish ample apology for any errors which it may 
be found to contain. It has often been found in the history of 
all popular governments, that every party succeeding to power 
is too anxious to signalize its triumph by some bold and novel 
policy calculated to attract attention, but not always to ad- 
vance the permanent interests and welfare of the people. 
Human government, whether of families or communities, 



37G MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

should, however, in my opinion, be in few things more distin- 
guished than in its uniformity and stability. It is not within 
the competency of government to effect such great and sudden, 
and at the same time, salutary improvements in the condition 
of the people, as many vainly imagine. These are the pro- 
ducts of time and experience, aided by all the lights which the 
history of our race can shed upon the science of jurisprudence. 
Guided by these lights in the legislation of our own beloved 
commonwealth, I would especially recommend to you to pass 
no laws in the rash spirit of adventure, and to overturn no set- 
tled policy of the State but on full and mature conviction of 
its propriety. 

One of the subjects of settled policy in the State I consider 
to be, the almost entire abolition of the punishment of death. 
It is one which I have long advocated under the most solemn 
convictions of its propriety, and should witness, with infinite 
pain, any attempt to recede from the enlightened humanity of 
the age. The gradual amelioration of the criminal code of 
Tennessee, effected as it has been, through slow degrees for 
many years, has added another proof to those drawn from other 
countries in favor of the abolition of capital punishment. 
Instead of weakening it has evidently increased the actual 
strength of the government, by drawing around it the rational 
approbation of society, and by the explosion of those ancient 
barbarities, which are now justly regarded with the deepest 
abhorence. Nor has this relaxation tended in the slighest de- 
gree to the increase of crimes. The long continued confine- 
ments of the prison house and the degradation of becoming the 
humble vassals of the turnkey that nightly locks them in their 
solitary cell, has done more in deterring from the commission- 
of crimes than the fear of death, which men always behold in 
distant obscurity. In all cases authorized by law and justified 
by their circumstances, I shall, with the greatest pleasure, com- 
mute the punishment from death to imprisonment for life in 
the penitentiary. Closely connected with this subject is the 
condition and management of cur State prison. Of these, it 
is probable you are already informed by the report of those 
having charge of the institution, if not by the personal inspec- 
tion of one of your committees. I have heard much complaint 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 377 

of the unusual mortality of its unfortunate inmates, within the 
last year or two. If this be owing to its location or the too 
crowded condition of its convicts, I know well with what readi- 
ness you will apply every corrective in your power. The idea 
is a most revolting one, of holding our State prisoners in con- 
finement under circumstances fatal to their lives. Even as 
to those whose punishment is inflicted for the highest offences, 
it would be but the mockery of humanity to have saved them 
from the speedy execution of the halter, only to subject them 
to the more tedious but fatal visitation of the fever. If the 
remedy for this unusual mortality is to be sought for in the en- 
largement of the present institution, so as to obviate the effects 
of its too crowded population, I respectfully submit, whether 
it would not be better to lay the foundation for the establish- 
ment of a new institution of the kind in the Eastern portion of 
the State. When that was done, the two institutions could 
occassionally relieve each other of any superabundance ; keep- 
ing each with only such a number as would be consistent with 
the preservation of health, and the profitable employment of 
their labor. Such an institution suitably located in East Ten- 
nessee, it is believed, could furnish employment for its convicts 
in iron, marble, &c, which would not bring its products so 
much in competition with the ordinary mechanical labor of the 
country as the present one is understood to do. It is confidently 
asserted by many, that a small appropriation for the building 
of the walls and erecting some of the cells, for immediate use, 
would be all that is necessarv. After that, by a transfer of a 
reasonable portion of the present convicts to that point, with. 
the aid of newly arriving accessions to their number, the 
whole internal structure of the establishment could be com- 
pleted without much further expense on the part of the State. 
All these suggestions, will, however, have to be postponed to 
the now almost universally received opinion that the labor of 
all the convicts, and the available means of the present 
institution, will have to be applied for some years to come 
to the erection of the State Capitol. To the valuable re- 
port lately made to the commissioners appointed to super- 
intend the erection of that building, by the Secretary of 
State, I beg leave to refer you, for much useful information, 



378 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



which it would have been difficult otherwise to have procured. 

The erection of the State Capitol, I am happy to learn, is in 
fine progress, under the superintendence of an accomplished 
architect, whose correct taste and sound judgment was singu- 
larly displayed in the plan which he furnished. It is on a large 
and commodious scale, well worthy, not only for the present, 
but future population of a great and noble State like Tennes- 
see. Whether it was not on a scale too magnificent for the 
present resources of the State, is now, perhaps, too late to en- 
quire. It has been adopted by the board of commissioners ap- 
pointed at the last session, approved of by my predecessor, 
and is now in the course of due execution. Beside the aid 
which can be derived from the labor and means of the peni- 
tentiary, I recommend such additional appropriation, for the 
purchase of materials, &c, as will keep the work in reasona- 
ble progress, without, however, producing any serious embar- 
rassment to the Treasury. It is certainly better to take more 
time for its completion, than to involve the State in taxation by 
a too liberal application of its funds. 

I most earnestly recommend to your favorable regard the 
Lunatic Asylum, and the institutions established bylaw for the 
benefit of the blind and the deaf and dumb. All these were 
established for the most benevolent and charitable purposes, 
and appeal directly to the noblest sympathies of the heart for 
their advancement and promotion. Man, endowed with rea- 
son, stands forth the proudest and noblest work of God's crea- 
tion, but deprived of that faculty, he sinks down into utter 
helplessness, the pitiable object of commiseration and charity. 
To provide for the recovery of many and the safety and com- 
fort of all who are so fatally and deeply afflicted, becomes the 
first duty of every Christian community. Nearly in the same 
condition are all those, who, though possessing this noblest 
faculty of our species, are yet deprived of some of those great 
avenues of instruction which so essentially contribute to adorn 
and perfect it. I have several times lately enjoyed the pleasure 
of being present at the exercises of one of these institutions, 
(for the blind,) when I found myself unable to decide whether 
most to admire the wonderful proficiency of the pupils, the 
skill and persevrcance of the preceptor, or the zeal and enlight- 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 379 

ened liberality of many distinguished persons of both sexes in 
advancing the best interests of the establishment. 

On a recent occasion I seized on the opportunity to advert 
to the now almost universal sentiment in the State in favor of 
the establishment of an enlightened and liberal system of pub- 
lic instruction. Not such a one as will pander to the light and 
dazzling literature of the age, but such as will impart useful- 
ness and solid value to our industrious and hardy people. 
There can be no necessity for here remarking on the value and 
importance of such a system if it can be established. We 
have one already too partial in its operation, and too deficient 
in its organization, because too contracted in its means to ac- 
complishthe above objects. How shall these means be enlarged 
so as to meet the sanguine expectations and desires of the 
public mind? The Executive communication of the present 
session informs us that " there are more than two hundred and 
fifty thousand children in the State between the ages of six and 
twenty-one years, whilst there are only one hundred thousand 
dollars to be appropriated to common schools." This gives 
us only forty cents per annum for the education of each child 
of the State within those ages. If you strike off fifty thousand 
of this number, for those who would not take its benefits, even 
if the system were established, it would then leave you only 
fifty cents per head, per annum. The suggestion has often 
been made that to supply this palpable deficiency of funds, 
the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands 
of the United States should take place. Estimating these pro- 
ceeds at two millions per annum, and that Tennessee would 
be entitled to one-twentieth part of the same, one-half of which 
could, under the Constitution, be appropriated to education, it 
would only give us fifty thousand dollars per annum, or twenty- 
five cents to each child to be educated : making in all, with 
both funds combined, the sum of seventy-five cents for each 
one per annum. Now it must be evident that this sum is 
totally insufficient for the purpose of establishing a general 
and comprehensive common school system in the State, and I 
am free to acknowledge that I know of no means of materially 
increasing it at the present time, but by taxation on the people. 
Public sentiment, I believe, has never yet been pronounced on 



380 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

this aspect of the case. All the popular demonstrations in 
favor of common schools have been made on the supposition 
that the funds requisite for their establishment were to be de- 
rived from some other source, and not by taxation on them- 
selves. Under this decided conviction, I cannot recommend 
the increase of our present fund by a further resort to taxation, 
but must leave the subject, with such additional remarks upon 
it, as you will find in another part of this message. The plans 
and suggestions there made, if they postponed the further en- 
largement of our present system at this time, may (although 
at a period more distant than could be desired,) ultimately 
furnish a fund adequate in a good degree to the wants of the 
country. 

In relation to our system of internal improvements, I do not 
know that it is necessary for me to trouble you with many ob- 
servations. The able report of the chairman of the commit- 
tee appointed to settle with the different turnpike companies, 
is already before you, and contains much which should attract 
your attention, and to commend the zeal, industry and ability 
of that committee. Beneficial as the present improvements 
have been, there are others which claim an equal, if not a 
greater degree of public favor and patronage. To say noth- 
ing of the improvement of the navigation of several of our 
rivers, by means of what are generally termed locks and dams, 
the extension of the South Carolina and Georgia railroad from 
Chattanooga to Nashville is every day attracting more and 
more of public attention. However important I consider the 
latter project, I can by no means recommend the issue of any 
further State bonds or securities for its execution. To the 
granting of liberal and wisely guarded charters to individual 
companies, I think there can be no good objection. It is high- 
ly probable that the stocks would be taken by individuals, and 
thereby several of our most important streams would be great- 
ly benefited, and the road under consideration be extended to 
Nashville, passing through a considerable portion of the State, 
and bringing with it almost incalculable advantages to the 
country. A connection between the south and the west can 
no where be more easily and beneficially effected. The pro- 
ject of connecting them by a road passing through the north- 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 381 

ern portions of Alabama and Mississippi, by no means super- 
sedes the propriety of the proposed road from Chattanooga, 
or near there, to Nashville. I should regret much to witness, 
in the slightest degree, a spirit of rivalship between the two 
projects. Both are important in the highest degree, and both 
are fairly within the range and compass of execution, by indi- 
vidual capital and enterprise. The distance between Charles- 
ton and Nashville is about 560 miles. The greater part of the 
road is now completed, and it will be but a very short time be- 
fore the cars will be regularly passing from Chattanooga to 
the first named city. From Chattanooga to Nashville is about 
130 miles, over a surface remarkably favorable to the making 
of such a road. The practicability of its construction, at a 
cost of about two millions of dollars, is now almost universally 
conceded. A very large portion of the labor of construction 
could be performed by farmers and other persons on the route, 
who possess no mechanical skill, thereby greatly diminishing 
the actual outlay of money in its completion. The increased 
value of property at the two termini of the road in our State, 
and for many miles on either side of it, would be very consid- 
erable, whilst the increase of agricultural productions, suita- 
ble for southern consumption, would be almost incalculable. 

The occasion will not allow of even the briefest enumera- 
tion of the advantages of the proposed road to the people of 
the eastern and middle portions of the State, nor of the con- 
siderations rendering it highly probable that it would be a prof- 
itable investment of capital to the stockholders. I must con- 
tent myself, therefore, with an earnest recommendation that a 
most liberal and judicious charter be granted to individuals 
for its construction. 

In the discharge of the duties imposed upon me, the neces- 
sity of recommending such measures as will secure the public 
credit, and at the same time avoid the imposition of heavy 
burdens on the people, has pressed with peculiar force upon my 
mind. I am gratified to know that in reference to the impor- 
tance of making ample and certain provisions to meet all our 
liabilities as a State, there is but one sentiment amongst our 
constituents. They do not stop to enquire into the wisdom of 
the original measures out of which their indebtedness has 



382 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

grown, but knowing the existence of the obligation, they ex- 
pect their representatives to devise the most effectual and the 
least oppressive means in their power to maintain, unimpaired, 
the high credit which their State has ever enjoyed. With an 
anxious desire that their reasonable expectations on this sub- 
ject may not be disappointed, I will proceed to lay before you 
the result of my deliberations. 

The entire indebtedness of the State may be stated at about 
three millions of dollars — the interest required annually to be 
paid upon it is about two hundred thousand dollars. To de- 
vise the ways and means of paying this debt as it shall fall due, 
and its interest as it accrues annually, presents the important 
problems which we are now called on to solve. Of this in- 
debtedness, the bonds of the State, to the amount of $500,000, 
issued to raise the means of paying for stock to that amount 
in the Union Bank, constitutes a part. As the State still owns 
this stock, considerably increased by the re-investment of our 
surplus profits therein, and as the Union Bank has heretofore 
paid punctually the interest on these bonds, I shall confine my 
attention to the remainder of the debt, which is made up as 
follows : 

Bonds issued for capital of Bank of Tennessee, $1,000,000 
Internal Improvement Bonds at 54; per cent., 263,160 

Internal Improvement Bonds at 5 per cent., 1,579,500 



Total $2,842,666 

The amount of indebtedness for which it is incumbent on 
the Legislature to make provision is $2,842,666, bearing an 
annual interest of $152,790. This debt will become due at 
different periods, covering a space of thirty years, before the 
whole become payable. To meet these liabilities as they shall 
respectively be payable, no adequate provision has yet been 
made by law. In my judgment, a proper regard for the credit 
of the State requires at your hands Legislative action on the 
subject. It is ascertained that a Sinking Fund of $35,000 
annually applied can be so managed as to be amply sufficient 
to meet our whole indebtedness as it becomes due. This esti- 
mate, however, is made upon the supposition that the Bank 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 383 

of Tennessee will continue to be relied on as the means of pro- 
viding for the payment of the accruing interests on the debt. 
It becomes necessary, therefore, that I should call your at- 
tention to the present condition and the probable future opera- 
tions of this institution, together with such suggestions in 
reference to its re-organization as will make it more available. 
By reference to the late Report of the President and Directors 
of the Bank of Tennessee the capital of the institution is 
found to be $3,200,598. It is made up as follows : 

State Bonds for Bank Capital, £1,000,000 

School Fund, 847,389 

Surplus Revenue, 1,353,209 



Total $3,200,598 

From the same report it is ascertained that during the last 
two years the net profits of the Bank have been annually 
$16S,305. By the laws nowinforce, the Bank is required to dis- 
tribute annually to Common Schools and Academics $118,000 
this amount added to the interest on the Internal Improve- 
ment bonds and the bonds issued to raise capital for the 
Bank, making, as before stated, $152,790, constitutes the bur- 
dens imposed on the institution. By the existing laws the 
Bank is expected and required to pay out of her annual profits 
the sum of $270,709, when it is now demonstrated that her 
annual profits amount to only $108,305. I trust that this im- 
portant fact will not fail to impress itself forcibly on the minds 
of the members of the General Assembly. The necessity for 
prompt and efficient action to avoid the consequences threat- 
ened by this State of things cannot be overlooked or disre- 
garded by the patriotic representatives of the people. 

In looking for the causes which have lead to this state of 
things, the fact cannot escape observation, that whilst the 
Bank has made within the last two years, less than six per 
cent, nett profits on its capital, the amount required to be dis- 
tributed to Common Schools and Academies is about fourteen 
per cent, on the amount of the School Fund in the Bank. 
The Bank has the use of $847,389 belonging to the School 
Fund, and by its use makes a clear profit of about $50,000 — 

20 



384 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

yet by law she is compelled annually to distribute for purposes 
of education $118,000. If the law were so amended as to re- 
quire the institution to distribute annually the amount of profits 
actually made by the use of the School Fund, the annual 
deficit of the Bank hereafter would be about $34,000 instead 
of about $100,000 under existing laws. 

I am aware that there is a strong aversion in the minds of 
some to any interference with the distribution now provided for 
purposes of education. This aversion is felt more sensibly by 
none than by myself, and if I saw any possible escape from it 
without a resort to a heavy increase of the public taxes, I should 
allow my feelings to control and dissuade me from the recom- 
mendation. But it has become a question no longer debatable 
that we cannot continue to make an annual distribution of 
$118,000 to schools and academies upon any scheme of man- 
aging our financial affairs which has yet been suggested. If 
it be determined that the bank shall be put into liquidation by 
vesting the school fund in State bonds, the amouut for annual 
distribution cannot then exceed $50,000. The question resolves 
itself into this : if the distribution to schools and academies is 
continued at the present sum the Bank must unavoidably be- 
come crippled, its capital consumed, the School Fund itself, in 
all probability, be greatly diminished, and the credit of the 
State entirely ruined. If the bank is wound up, the school 
fund will be invested in State bonds bearing five per cent. 
interest and will therefore only yield about $50,000 annually. 
But if the actual profits made by the bank on the school fund 
are distributed, so much of the burden will be lifted from 
that institution, that the way will be open for its prosperous 
continuance. As reluctant as I am to make any recom- 
mendation which would seem to conflict with the prospect of 
an extension of our common school system, I feel coerced 
under the weight of the consideration to which I have alluded, 
to invite to these suggestions your careful and favorable con- 
sideration. 

It will be observed that if the suggestions already made 
should meet your approbation, the profits of the bank, as at 
present organized, will fall short by the sum of $35,000 in meet- 
ing the liabilities imposed upon it. It becomes important, then, 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 385 

to inquire whether the institution can be so re-organized as to 
increase its profits to an extent to cover this deficiency. After 
mature reflection, I am fully satisfied that an increase of profits 
amounting to $35,000 annully, or more, can be secured by such 
alterations in the number and locations of the branches, and 
such a change in its system of doing business as will enable 
its directors to conduct it upon legitimate banking principles. 
When the bank was created, our leading object was to afford 
relief to an embarrassed people by furnishing loans on accom- 
modation paper. That object was attained, and at the present 
the great purpose in continuing the bank is to make profits to 
pay the interest on our debt and avoid a resort to burdensome 
taxation. Reason and experience combined, prove that the 
business of banking cannot be conducted safely or profitably 
upon the principle of dealing mainly in accommodation notes, 
renewable upon small calls. If the question of creating the 
bank were now to be settled, the popular voice would at once 
reject the proposition ; but. in the present attitude of the ques- 
tion I am constrained to express the opinion that the wisest 
course that can be devised would be to give to the directory of 
the principal bank the power to take steps for the gradual dis- 
continuance of all such branches as are found to be unprofita- 
ble, and to transfer their capital to some three or four points 
where commercial advantages hold out certain prospects of 
affording better profits. This recommendation I am aware, 
may encounter strenuous opposition, but under the solemn 
obligations imposed upon me, and under the most thorough 
convictions as to the necessity of the course indicated, I can- 
not withhold the expression of a strong hope that I shall have 
your final co-operation in the suggestions. If the course indi- 
cated shall be adopted by you, I have every reason to believe 
that the increased profits of the bank would enable it in a very 
short time to increase the annual distribution to the cause of 
education, and give assurance that the common school system 
could be permanently maintained. 

In the suggestions which I have already made, it has been 
my object to devise the means of securing the payment of the 
interest on our State debt without any resort to the treasury. 
If upon investigation of the operation of the revenue laws, as 



q 



86 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



they now stand, it shall be found that any considerable aid 
can be derived from that source, it will enable you to increase 
by so much the annual distribution to schools beyond the actual 
profits made on the school fund. If it shall be fonnd that by 
a system of rigid but just economy in the public expenditures, 
and by the use of any surplus in the treasury derivable 
from taxes, you can not only distribute to the school the 
profits on the school fund, but also the profits on one 
half of the surplus revenue on deposit with the State, 
every thing demanded at your hands by the strictest prin- 
ciples of justice and equity in behalf of education will have 
been achieved. But my convictions are so strong that I 
cannot refrain from again remarking that no resort to the 
treasury for aid can weaken the force of the high considera- 
tions which demand a re-organization of the Bank according 
to the principles I have suggested. 

When you shall have made ample provision for the payment 
of the interest on the State debt, your duties will be but im- 
perfectly discharged until you also provide a sinking fund for 
the liquidation of the debt itself. I have already remarked 
that a sinking fund of $35,000 can be so managed as to pay 
off our entire debt by the time it becomes due. I am gratified 
to learn that through the valuable and efficient labors of the 
commissioners appointed by the last legislature to settle with 
the Internal Improvement Companies, the means have been 
made available, with a small annual appropriation from the 
Treasury, to effect this most desirable object. If provision 
shall be made setting apart the dividends derivable from our 
road stocks, together with an amount from the treasury, mak- 
ing a permanent annual fund of $35,000, and it be made the 
duty of the President of the Bank or some other officer to vest 
the same annually in State Bonds, and if to this sum be added 
each year any surplus profits of the bank, after paying its lia- 
bilities, it will be found that when our State debt falls due, it 
would have been liquidated and our bonds cancelled with- 
out any further resort to taxation. Our whole interest in 
internal improvement companies, amounting to over one mil- 
lion seven hundred thousand dollars, together with the surplus 
revenue on deposit, amounting to over $1,353,000, can be 






GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE, 387 

added to the school fund, making in all a school fund nearly 
four millions of dollars. In view of a result so ardently desired 
by every patriotic citizen, I cannot too strongly urge upon 
your consideration the adoption of all necessary means for its 
effectuation. AARON V. BROWN. 

Executive Office, Nov. 7, 1845. 



PROCLAMATION 

Of Gov. Brown, raising the three first Regiments of Tennessee 
Volunteers for the Mexican War, May, 1846. 



Whereas, I have received the following communication from 
the Department of War at Washington : 

WAR DEPARTMENT, { 

Washington, May 16, 1846. \ 
Sir : I have the honor to enclose a copy of an act of Congress, entitled 
" An act providing for the prosecution of the existing war between the Uni- 
ted States and the republic of Mexico," which authorizes the President to 
accept the services of volunteers. 

It will be perceived that all the officers, with volunteers, taken into the 
service of the United States under this act, are to be appointed and com- 
missioned, or such as have been appointed and commissioned in accordance 
with the laws of the State from whence they are taken, and that the vol- 
unteers received into the service of the United States, are to have the or- 
ganization of the army of the United States. For this exact organization, 
so far as relates to companies and regiments, please see the memorandum 
appended to the law herewith, to both of which particular attention is re- 
quested ; but, under the discretion allowed him, the President has decided 
that the number of privates in all volunteer companies shall be limited to 
eighty. 

On the part of the President, I have to request your Excellency to cause 
to be organized, at the earliest practicable period, the following corps of 
volunteers : 

One regiment of cavalry, or mounted men, and two regiments of infan- 
try, or riflemen. 

Your Excellency is requested to designate, and to communicate promptly 
to this Department, some convenient place of rendezvous for moving to- 
wards Mexico, for the several companies, as fast as they shall be organized, 
where they will be further organized into regiments. 



PROCLAMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS. 389 

The several corps will be inspected and mustered into the service of the 
United States, as far as practicable, by an officer or officers of the United 
States Army. When this cannot be done, you are requested to designate 
the inspecting and mustering officer, who will in every case be instructed 
to receive no man under the rank of commissioned officers, who is in years 
apparently over forty-five or under eighteen, or who is not in physical 
strength and vigor; nor the horse of any volunteer not apparently sound and 
effective, with the necessary horse equipments or furniture. 

It is respectfully suggested that public notice of these requirements of 
law, may prevent much disappointment to the zealous and patriotic citizens 
of your State, multitudes of whom the President cannot doubt will be eager 
to volunteer. 

Should there be any difficulty or considerable delay in obtaining the 
amount and description of the force proposed to be received from your 
State, you will give the earliest notice of these to this Department, that 
proper steps may be taken to receive them from other sections of the coun- 
try. Memphis is suggested as the place of rendezvous for the mounted regi- 
ment, and Nashville for the regiments of infantry or rifle. 
Very respectfully, your ob't serv't, 

W. L. MARCY, Sec'y of War. 

His Ex'cy A. V. Bkown, Gov. of Tenn. 

In compliance with the communication aforesaid, I have 
caused the requisition therein made to be apportioned amongst 
the military divisions of this State in the following manner : 

To the first division, (East Tennessee,) seven companies, fout 
of which to be infantry or riflemen, and three to be cavalry or 
mounted men. 

To the second division, eight companies, six of infantry or 
riflemen, and two of cavalry or mounted men. 

To the third division, nine companies, six of infantry or rifle- 
men, and three of cavalry or mounted men. 

To the fourth division, (Western District,) six companies, 
four of infantry or riflemen, and two of cavalry or mounted 
men. 

An infantry company, according to the directions of the Sec- 
retary of War, accompanying said requisition, will consist of 
one captain, one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, four 
sergeants, four corporals, two musicians, and not more than 
eighty privates — the minimum is not mentioned by him, but 
I will add, not less than sixty-four rank and file. A company 
of cavalry or mounted men will consist of one captain, one first 
lieutenant, one second lieutenant, four sergeants, four corpo- 



390 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

rals, two buglers, one farrier and blacksmith, and not more 
than eighty privates, and not less than sixty-four rank and 
file. 

The Major Generals commanding said Divisions are hereby- 
required to furnish the quota of volunteer companies above 
specified, and according to the organization aforesaid. 

In raising said volunteer companies, the Major Generals will 
duly observe the 44th section of the militia laws of this State, 
passed in the year 1840, which is in the following words, viz: 
" Be it enacted, that each volunteer company which shall re- 
ceive the arms of the State, shall be held in readiness and sub- 
ject to the first call for service of the State or of the United 
States." 

Under this act all volunteer companies which have received 
the arms of the State since the passage of said act, and which 
have not returned the same to the State, and continued their 
existence until the receipt of the requisition aforesaid, viz : 
the 22d day of May, 184G, will, on application, be entitled to 
priority. Next to these, all old companies which have been re- 
vived, and new ones which have been formed since the date of 
order No. 1, issued by R. B. Turner, Adjutant General of the 
State, viz : since the 13th instant, and up to the date of this 
proclamation, and which have been reported to me or to the 
Adjutant General, (including all cases in which reports may 
have been started by mail or private conveyance, whether the 
same have yet come to hand or not,) shall be entitled to pri- 
ority over companies formed since the date of this proclama- 
tion. 

If a greater number of companies formed between the peri- 
ods aforesaid shall tender themselves to any of the Major Gen- 
erals, than will fill up the requisition on their divisions, it shall 
be the duty of such Major General forthwith to determine 
fairly by ballot, which shall be received, (holding separate bal- 
lotings for infantry and cavalry,) and notify such companies, 
as soon as possible, in their respective neighborhoods ; and 
said companies, on learning such acceptance, shall take up 
their march in time to reach the place of rendezvous as here- 
inafter stated. And where a sufficient number of the two last 
described class of companies shall not be presented, any vol- 



PROCLAMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS. 



301 



unteer company, formed since the date of this proclamation 
aforesaid, viz : the 24th instant, may be received, unless so 
many of such companies shall apply as shall make it neces- 
sary to resort to a ballot, in order to determine between them. 

In no case is it expected that any volunteer company shall 
leave its neighborhood until it shall have received notice of its 
acceptance or successful ballot, and thereupon it will be ex- 
pected to repair to the place of rendezvous hereafter men- 
tioned. 

All volunteer companies in the first division, (East Tennes- 
see,) will report themselves as soon as possible after seeing this 
proclamation, to Major General Brazelton, at Knoxville, who 
is hereby requested to make that place his head quarters, for 
the purpose of giving greater dispatch to the service. When 
he shall have waited ten days from the receipt of this procla- 
mation for volunteer companies to tender their services, he 
shall make his acceptance, or determine by ballot, (when too 
many companies are presented,) and notify by express, when 
necessary, the companies accepted, and order the cavalry com- 
panies to repair forthwith to the general rendezvous at Mem- 
phis. All infantry companies to be ordered by the most ap- 
proved route to the same place, unless he shall find it practica- 
ble and expedient to cause them to be transported on the Ten- 
nessee river from any point thereof to Memphis as aforesaid ; 
and he is hereby directed and authorized to make all suitable 
andreasonable contracts for such mode of transportation, and 
to appoint an agent to act as Quarter Master and Commissary 
for the purchase of supplies, and to draw on any disbursing 
officer of the United States sent to this State, or on the Exec- 
utive Department of this State. If, after the expiration of 
fifteen days from the receipt of this proclamation, he shall not 
be able to furnish the number of companies required from his 
division, he will report the deficiency to the Executive, that the 
same may be received from some other division of the State. 

Volunteer companies from the second division, will make 
return and report forthwith after this date to Major General 
Campbell, who is requested to make his head quarters at Nash- 
ville, for the greater convenience of the companies of his di- 



392 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

vision, who will accept their services in the manner and on the 
principles specified in a former part of this proclamation. 

Those of the third division, will report to Major General 
Bradley, at Franklin, who will liKewise give due attention to 
this order in the manner pointed out. All letters announcing 
the existence and formation of companies tendering their ser- 
vices, in the event of a requisition, which have been received 
by me, or the Adjutant General of the State, will be handed 
over to the Major General of the proper division, in order to 
enable him to give to the companies, in whose behalf they 
were written, the full benefit of their patriotism and zeal. 

Volunteer companies from the fourth division, (Western Dis- 
trict,) will report themselves to Major General Hays, at Jack- 
son, who will accept of their services by the rules and on the 
principles herein stated, and notify by express, when neces- 
sary, such companies ; and on receiving such notice, all the 
companies (infantry and cavalry) will march to Memphis, the 
place of their rendezvous and further organization, on the 15th 
June. Any deficiency which may occur in raising the required 
number of companies from his division, the Major General 
will report to the Executive, that the same may be received 
from some other portion of the State. 

The seven infantry companies from the second and third 
divisions, (Middle Tennessee,) will be expected to be at A T ash- 
ville by the 8th of June, where suitable and proper arrange- 
ments will be made for their transportation to Memphis, the 
place of general rendezvous, on the 15th of June, where the 
whole force will be further organized into regiments as pre- 
scribed by the laws of the State. The cavalry companies, from 
every part of the State, will proceed by land to Memphis. 

Gen. Levin H. Coe, Inspector General of the State, is hereby 
instructed, unless superseded in that duty by some officer 
charged with the same by the United States, to select a suita- 
ble encampment in or near Memphis, and cause an adequate 
supply of rations and supplies to be engaged for the subsist- 
ence of said troops whilst at that place, and employ suitable 
assistants for that purpose. 

Volunteer companies, after they have been accepted by the 
Major Generals, will be at liberty to arm themselves with 



PROCLAMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS. 393 

"Hall's rifles," or muskets, or other arms, at the depots in the 
several divisions of the State, either in whole or in part, so as 
to go to the field with arms in as good condition as possible, 
and the keepers of the public arms are hereby directed to de- 
liver such arms to the Captain of any accepted company, taking 
his receipt for the same. 

All companies from the second and third divisions will be 
mustered into the service of the United States at Nashville, 
and all others at Memphis. 

The East Tennessee troops will arrive at Memphis as soon 
after the said 15th of June as practicable. 

The Executive has witnessed, with the proudest satisfaction, 
the zeal and alacrity with which the citizens of Tennessee have 
rallied to the standard of the country. He has endeavored to 
give all parts of the State an equal chance to engage in the 
service, and has gone into all the above details, in order to save 
time and to give the utmost possible expedition to the depar- 
ture of the troops. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, 
land caused the great seal of the State to be affixed, 
Ion this the 24th day of May, 1846. 

AARON V. BROWN. 



mm 



By the Governor, 

Jno. S. Young, Sec'y of State. 



ADDRESS 



Of Gov. Brown, transferring the third Regiment of Volunteers 

to the United States. 



EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, ) 
Nashville, June 3, 1846. \ 

To Col. Wm. B. Campbell : ^ 

Sir: The first regiment of the Tennessee Infantiy Volun- 
teers, which you have the honor to command, being now fully 
organized and mustered into the service of the United States, 
in pursuance of a requisition made on me by the Secretary of 
War, dated 16th May, 1846, you will proceed with it, by means 
of the steamboats chartered for that purpose, to the city of 
New Orleans as speedily as practicable, and report yourself to 
Major General Edmund Pendleton Gaines, for further orders. 

In surrendering the State authority, and passing you over, 
during the term of your service, to that of the United States, 
I cannot permit the opportunity thereby afforded to pass by, 
without submitting a few observations to you and the brave and 
gallant men under your command. You have been called on 
at a moment of great emergency to engage in the service of 
the country. The requisition on me arrived by one mail ; mine 
on you was sent forth by the next. In the short space of one 
week you nobly responded to my call, and are now here from 
the different portions of a widely extended country with a 
promptitude and alacrity which has never been surpassed in 
the volunteer service of the country. It would have been im- 
possible to have given greater celerity to the movement, with- 



ADDRESS TO VOLUNTEERS. 395 

out having taken the requisition from a few of our principal 
towns and nearest counties of the State, without giving the 
balance of it any opportunity to participate in the gloriou3 
privilege of defending the country. This I could not consent 
to do ; and in order to give all parts of the State over which I 
preside an equal opportunity, I caused the requisition to be ap- 
portioned among the different military divisions established by 
law. But such has been the patriotic ardor of my countrymen, 
that at least five times as many companies offered themselves 
a3 it would take to fill up the requisition. I could not take all, 
for reasons hereafter mentioned, and I therefore directed the 
four Major Generals of the State to select, according to the 
rules laid down, the companies to be received from their res- 
pective divisions. It would have been impossible for me to 
have made the selection with propriety amongst companies 
formed all over the State, with which the Major Generals may 
well be presumed to have much better acquaintance than any 
body else. I directed them to receive the old armed compa- 
nies under the fortieth section of the militia laws of the State, 
and wherever there was a conflict between other companies 
described, to decide the same fairly by ballot. I know of no 
mode more equitable than that. The Major Generals of the 
second and third divisions have reported to me that they have 
selected you (the twelve companies now present) as the fortu- 
nate ones on whom the glorious privilege of defending the 
rights and honor of the country has finally devolved. 

Others, no doubt, may feel some disappointment and morti- 
fication, that they, too, cannot share with you at this time in 
the toils, and dangers, and honors of the present campaign. — 
Many have petitioned and entreated me to take them also into 
the public service. Most heartily would I have consented to 
do so, if it had been in my power. But the requisition was ex- 
pressly limited to three regiments, and no more. Besides this, 
the Secretary of War, after learning that Gen. Gaines had 
called for a much larger requisition, and when he knew every 
thing known to us, as to Gen. Taylor's condition, expressly and 
promptly required me not to comply with it. Moreover, after 
the requisition was made, authorizing companies to contain as 
many as eighty privates, the Secretary of War desired that 



396 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

they should be reduced so as not to exceed sixty-four privates, 
thereby considerably diminishing the number of the first call. 
Under these circumstances, I felt constrained to decline ac- 
cepting more than would fill the requisition. The requisition 
from which all my authority is derived, was against it. The 
letter of the Secretary of War, commanding me not to comply 
with the larger requisition of Gen. Gaines, was against it. — 
His letter to reduce the size of the companies, if not too far 
advanced in organization, was against it, — and nothing in fa- 
vor of it, but the patriotic eagerness of my countrymen to re- 
pel the insolent invader of our soil. 

The letter of Gen. Gaines was one of advice, in anticipation 
of a call, and not a requisition at all. If considered as man- 
datory, it was void for want of authority. If (as it declares in 
express terms) it is regarded as advisory only, it turns out that 
I acted precisely in accordance with the wishes of the general 
government, in not complying with it. And more than all, 
suppose I had yielded to the enthusiasm of the moment, and 
instead of two thousand or three thousand men, I had sent five 
thousand or six thousand, what assurance have we that any 
more than the requisition would have been received? None, 
whatsoever; and we might have been doomed to see or hear of 
hundreds and thousands of our fellow-citizens rejected in New 
Orleans, without provisions, and many without money, to grope 
their way back to Tennessee, cursing the folly of her Gov- 
ernor, in having disobeyed all the orders and admonitions of 
the constituted authorities of the general government. 

And now, Sir, having explained to you and the regiment un- 
der your command, and to our fellow-citizens at large, the 
principles on which you have been selected rather than others, 
to bear the time-honored standard of Tennessee to the field of 
battle and of glory, I have only to say, Go, gallant sons of 
gallant fathers, go and join with others of your countrymen, in 
driving back, if not already done, the insolent invader of our 
country, and if need be, to carry home the war into the very 
heart of his territory. Go, under that beautiful banner, which 
innocence, virtue, and beauty have presented to you. Never 
permit it — and I know you will not — never permit it to be low- 
ered in the face of the enemy, whilst your regiment has one 



ADDRESS TO VOLUNTEERS. 397 

soldier left to hold it proudly floating to the breeze. Go, and 
may a kind Providence attend you, and bring you back in 
health and safety, the pride of an admiring and grateful 
country. AARON V. BROWN, 

Governor and Commander in Chief. 



MESSAGE 

Of Gov. A. V. Brown, to the General Assembly of the State of 
Tennessee, October 6th, 1847. 



Gentlemen of the Senate 

and of the House of Representatives: 

Assembled as you now are, as the representatives of the 
people, you cannot fail to observe in the circumstances which 
surround you, increased cause of gratitude and reverence to 
that Supreme Being who presides over the destinies of nations. 

The two past years have been signalized by unnumbered 
blessings and benefits. The labor of the husbandman has 
been crowned with abundance, whilst fair and remunerating 
prices have been received for the rich productions of his fields . 
Our commerce has been greatly increased, and our domestic 
industry, of every variety, has flourished in the most remarka- 
ble degree. Tranquility and good order have been main- 
tained, and the supremacy of our laws acknowledged through- 
out all our borders. 

In the full enjoyment of these blessings, to which may be 
added that of almost uninterrupted good health, the people of 
Tennessee have been steadily advancing in knowledge, in vir- 
tue, and indeed in all the elements of national greatness. It 
must be a pleasing duty to serve such a people, and a delight- 
ful task to add any thing valuable to the legislation of such a 
noble State. 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 399 

When the reports of the various branches or departments of 
the State government shall have been made to you, I doubt not 
that you will find that all the duties of them have been per- 
formed with a promptitude and fidelity in perfect harmony with 
the other pleasing circumstances under which you have as- 
sembled. 

The benevolent institutions of the State, (the Lunatic Asy- 
lum, and those for the education of the Blind and the Deaf 
and Dumb,) will be found to have realized, in a good degree, 
the expectations of the public. They will, however, continue 
to appeal to the noblest sympathies of our nature for still fur- 
ther advancement and promotion. 

The sale of the Lunatic Asylum and its location in the coun- 
try, for reasons which will be communicated in another form, 
has not been effected; and I recommend a reconsideration and 
amendment of the law directing its sale. During the past two 
years, I have many reasons to believe, that the institution has 
been well and faithfully managed, especially the female de- 
partment of it, which has been superintended by a lady of 
singular energy, skill and ability for such a station. 

From the Penitentiary, I anticipate a very satisfactory report 
to you. The convicts generally have been in the enjoyment of 
good health, and have manifested no spirit of rebellion or dis- 
obedience. The keeper, his deputy, and the other officers, 
having great skill and experience in such matters, seem to have 
blended the stern rigor of discipline with all the kindness and 
humanity which such a situation will admit of. The greater 
portion of the efficient labor of the convicts has been directed 
to the building of the State Capitol, under the law directing it 
so to be done. A most beautiful edifice is slowly rising up, 
likely to attract the admiration of the country, and to outstrip 
in magnitude, convenience, durability and elegance, the capi- 
tol of any other State in the Union. 

I have no reason to recommend any change in this policy, 
nor any material ones in the details of the law on this subject. 

There is no subject upon which I desire to hold communion 
with you more freely than on that of Education. 

Our Universities and Colleges are, in the general, meeting 

the just expectations of their friends. Some new ones have 

27 



400 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

been recently established in the State, founded chiefly, if not 
entirely, on the enlightened liberality of individuals, which 
promise soon to rival their older predecessors in the diffusion 
of a sound and wholesome intelligence among the people. — 
Among these, it may not be considered invidious to mention 
the one at Lebanon, whose rising reputation gives fine prom- 
ise of its future usefulness to the State. 

Our county academies may also be said, in the general, to 
be doing well. But besides all these, we must have a full and 
complete system of common or primary schools, dispensing 
their benefits to all those whose means do not enable them to 
send off their children to distant seminaries of learning. 

No system can be compared to this latter description of 
schools. They secure to the great mass of society an educa- 
tion, if not highly finished and polished, yet commensurate with 
the everyday wants and necessities of the people. We should 
never relax our exertions on this subject until we could send 
the gratifying intelligence abroad, that not one native born son 
or daughter of Tennessee could be found who could not read 
the Scripture of Divine Revelation, and likewise the laws and 
Constitution of the country. How such a blessed and happy 
result is to be attained, is a question constantly addressing it- 
self to the friends of education throughout the land. That 
legislature which shall be able to answer it in the establish- 
ment of such a system, with adequate funds to support it, will 
have well entitled themselves to the gratitude of the present, 
and the blessings of future generations, 

For the reasons formerly given by me to your immediate 
predecessors, I cannot recommend a present resort to taxation, 
until by some unequivocal expression of public sentiment, it 
is made manifest that such a measure would be cheerfully ac- 
quiesced in. How far it might answer a valuable purpose, to 
authorize such counties, whose population might be willing to 
do so, to levy and collect a school fund, for their own county 
purposes, to be applied in the same manner as the other school 
funds furnished by the State, and the propriety of such a law 
is respectfully submitted, both as to its constitutionality and 
expediency, to your consideration. Such legislation should be 
carefully guarded, both as to its amount and application. 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 401 

If but a few counties should set the example of self-taxa- 
tion for so noble an object, the beneficial effects resulting from 
it might open the way to its imitation by other counties, until 
public sentiment, although slowly and cautiously developed, 
might demand the measure as one of great policy, eminently 
calculated to improve the minds and elevate the morals of the 
whole community. 

If, however, the wisdom of your honorable bodies should find 
insurmountable objections to this limited and experimental 
mode of eliciting an expression of public opinion, I know of 
no better plan than to husband the resources of the State Bank ; 
and by establishing a sinking fund of adequate amount, finally 
absorb our outstanding liabilities and leave the whole capital 
and funds of that institution, amounting to several millions of 
dollars, as a permanent endowment of common schools. Tax- 
ation is therefore the immediate and direct mode of establish- 
ing the system. Through the agency of the bank is the more 
remote and contingent one; and the wisdom of the legislature 
must decide between them, or devise abetter one than either. 

With a mind fondly lingering over this subject, and unwil- 
ling to leave it, I beg permission to trouble you with another 
suggestion in aid of those already made. 

We have no "Superintendent of Public Instruction." The 
examples of other States, and the very nature and importance 
of the subject, would seem to rebuke the omission. Even if 
such an officer were of temporary appointment, with no power 
over the funds, he might be of great advantage in rousing up 
and directing the sleeping energies of the people. He should 
be a man eminent for his attainments in science, and for his de- 
votion to the moral and intellectual welfare of the rising gen- 
eration. He should commune freely with the learned and the 
pious of the land. He should visit every county in the State. 
He should organize county committees of such zealous and pa- 
triotic citizens, as might agree to visit the school districts of 
their respective counties, and by suitable appeals and lectures, 
impart new vigor and energy to the present system. He should 
excite the acting school commissioners of each county to re- 
newed exertions in raising and increasing the present school 
fund by voluntary individual subscription. In short, such a 



402 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

man, by traversing the State, addressing his fellow-citizens at 
suitable times and places, and finally reporting to the legisla- 
ture a full account of his labors, and the result of his best opin- 
ions, might well render a service to the cause of education, 
which would outweigh a thousand-fold the $1500 or $2000 
which might be paid him. It cannot be necessary in this com- 
munication to elaborate the duties and advantages of such an 
officer, and I suggest his creation, because I earnestly desire 
you to do everything — I had almost said anything — for the ad- 
vancement of so great and so good a cause. 

The laudable anxiety exhibited by your predecessors to fos- 
ter and encourage internal improvements in the State, gives 
assurance that that subject will engage much of your attention. 
Through the agency of the committee (members of the legis- 
lature) appointed by the legislature in 1843, and that of the 
commissioners appointed at the last session, settlements have 
been made with the several internal improvement companies, 
by which all the difficulties in the intercourse between the 
State and the companies have been obviated. The solvent 
and insolvent companies have been ascertained. With the 
former, nothing remains to be done, but to receive the divi- 
dends due the State, semi-annually, on the first of January and 
July; whilst from the latter, nothing is to be expected. I there- 
fore regard the continuance of a special agent, as a mere col- 
lector of the State's dividends, as an unnecessary expense, as 
the duty could be performed by the cashier of the Bank of 
Tennessee, or by the Treasurer of the State. The officers 
from all the companies from which the State will receive divi- 
dends, reside in, or so near Nashville, that the payments could 
be so made without trouble or difficulty. The cashier or trea- 
surer, however, should be required to file statements with the 
comptroller, exhibiting the receipts or disbursements of the 
roads, together with the duplicate receipts of the cashier or 
treasurer for the inspection and approval of the internal im- 
provement board. The duty of collecting dividends during the 
last year has been performed by the Secretary of State, together 
with the other duties pertaining to his appointment as commis- 
sioner, which have now ceased, for which he was allowed five 
hundred dollars as an addition to his salary, the continuance 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 403 

of which I look upon as an unnecessary expense, as the mere 
collection of dividends can be performed by the treasurer or 
cashier of the bank without additional compensation. 

The completion of the Georgia railroad to Chattanooga, an 
event now soon to be expected, will constitute a new and im- 
portant era in the commercial and agricultural history in the 
eastern portion of our State. It uiiIocks the door, which for 
so many years has been closed against the profitable exchange 
of her mineral and agricultural productions with the other 
States which surround her. If nothing more were done, her 
people might well exult in such a vast improvement in their 
condition. But the Hiwassee railroad, extending, as it will, 
the benefits of this improvement to a much higher point on the 
Tennessee at Knoxville, makes the completion of the whole 
line a matter of intense, and almost vital interest, to the whole 
of that large and interesting portion of the State. We have 
now good reason to expect the completion of this latter por- 
tion of the road. The company has been newly organized; 
its old liabilities have been, to a considerable extent, dis- 
charged, and the present excellent directory have exhibited a 
laudable determination to push forward the work with vigor 
and earnestness. 

From Knoxville, if a well built McAdamised road, extend- 
ing in the proper direction to the Virginia line, could be con- 
structed, and the principal obstructions in the Tennessee river 
could be removed to the flourishing village of Kingsport, East 
Tennessee, reposing amid her lofty mountains, would be sur- 
passed by no portion of our State in the abundant means of 
wealth and general prosperity. 

If these grand projects cannot be carried on successfully by 
individual capital and enterprise, it will devolve upon you to 
determine whether any and how much assistance can be furn- 
ished by the State. The objects are of sufficient importance 
to engage in their behalf as full a share of State encouragement 
as her present liabilities and means would render prudent, and 
to this extent I earnestly recommend the subject to your atten- 
tion. 

In Middle Tennessee we are every day receiving the richest 
rewards from many of the improvements already made. — 



404 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

The eye strikes at once on the map and traces out the many 
great roads stretching across the State, and centering at Nash- 
ville, a convenient point of the navigation of the Cumberland. 
So too, it glances along another road striking from Columbia, 
situated in the very heart of this middle region, and terminat- 
ing on the Tennessee in its northern sweep through the State. 
Further north is to be seen a fine road coming in from Ken- 
tucky, terminating at Clarksville, and destined to contribute 
largely to the prosperity of a beautiful town now rapidly im- 
proving and bidding fair to become one of the most important 
commercial places in the State. Still the most superficial ob- 
server cannot fail to perceive the immense advantages to be 
derived by an extension of the Georgia road from Chattanooga 
to N"ashville — advantages not to Chattanooga or Nashville 
alone, nor to the counties through which it would pass, but to 
almost every county in the middle portion of the State. 
This truth is every day becoming more manifest, in the in- 
creased anxiety every where displayed in favor of its con- 
struction. The corporation of Nashville has been authorized 
by the popular vote of the city, to subscribe for half a million 
of the stock, and many individuals of acknowledged sagacity 
and shrewdness in all that relates to the profitable investment 
of their funds, are known of, who intend to embark freely in 
the enterprise. In connection however with this work, the im- 
provement of the Cumberland ought not to be lost sight of. 
A charter to individuals for this purpose was granted at the 
last session of the General Assembly, singularly defective in 
some of its provisions. I earnestly recommend its supervision 
and amendment in such a manner as to insure the speedy re- 
moval of those obstructions, so detrimental to the commerce 
and trade of the middle portion of the State. When the Chat- 
tanooga and Nashville railroads shall have been completed 
and the obstructions in the Cumberland, the Elk, the Duck and 
the Caney Fork, shall have been removed, it would be difficult 
to find any region in the world possessing more advantages 
than Middle Tennessee. With a soil remarkable for its fertili- 
ty — a climate happily exempt from the sickness of the south, 
and the intense protracted cold of the north — a population pro- 
verbial for its industry, sobriety and enterprise — with an easy 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 405 

accessibility by her roads and rivers to the markets of New Or- 
leans and through her proposed railroad to those of Charleston 
and Savannah, she may well challenge comparison with the 
most favored regions of the Union. 

The Western District of our State is happily situated, in re- 
ference to natural facilities, for carrying off her agricultural 
productions. Lying nearly in a square, she is surrounded on 
three sides by two of the noblest rivers in the world, while the 
Hatchee, the Forked Deer, and the Obion, all navigable for 
small boats, penetrate into many of her richest and most pop- 
ulous counties. A project has however been started in the 
south proposing to extend to her further facilities by the con- 
struction of a railroad from Mobile to the Mississippi, near 
the mouth of the Ohio. 

The engineer, Mr. Lewis Troost, son of the accomplished 
Geologist of the State, gives the following description of the 
route and the surface of the country over which it is proposed 
it should pass: — 

" Commencing at the city of Mobile, the route projected is in nearly a 
north direction, diverging slightly to the west, on the comparatively level 
lands dividing the waters of theMississppi from those of the Tombigbee and 
Tennessee rivers, through the south-western portion of Alabama, the east- 
ern and north-eastern of Mississippi, the Western District of Tennessee, 
and the south-west corner of Kentucky to the Mississippi river, at or near 
the junction of the Ohio. At this point it is suggested to cross the Mis- 
sissippi river by a steam ferry ; similar to that over the Susquehanna on the 
line of railroad between Philadelphia and Baltimore, and to extend the road 
on the west bank of the Mississippi to the city of St. Louis. 

" The distance from Mobile to the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio 
rivers on this line, would be about four hundred and forty miles, and from 
the mouth of the Ohio to the city of St. Louis, about one hundred and fifty 
miles, making the total distance from the city of St. Louis to the city of 
Mobile, equal to about five hundred and ninety miles. 

" A glance at the map of the States through which this route is pro- 
jected, will indicate that from Mobile to the mouth of the Ohio, there is not 
a river or stream of any magnitude to cross, and that on the west bank of 
the Mississippi river up to the city of St. Louis, there is only one river, the 
Maramec, to overcome. 

" In the present communication it is proposed to say nothing of that part 
of the route between the city of St. Louis and the mouth of the Ohio. 
There can be no doubt that as soon as a continuous line of railway exists 
from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi, at the junction 



406 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



of the Ohio, the citizens of St. Louis, anxious to partake of the advan- 
tages of railroad communication, will be ready to meet it with a railroad 
from their city to the west bank of the Mississippi. 

" St. Louis is the great depot of the vast productions of the Upper Mis. 
issippi and Missouri. She receives and distributes supplies for an immense 
extent of territory, exceedingly fertile in the production of articles which 
must be transported to markets other than those afforded at home. Her 
navigation to these markets is at all times dangerous, interrupted frequently 
by the shifting of channels and the accumulation of snags, and for weeks 
in the winter season entirely closed by ice. Her interests will, at no dis- 
tant period, even if they do not now, point out the necessity of having con- 
stant intercourse with the south, uninterrupted by low water, by ice, or by 
the numerous dangers of river navigation. 

" For eighty or one hundred miles, the country north of Mobile, through 
which the railroad will pass, is described to be a comparatively level sandy 
region, very favorable for railroad making, and covered with yellow pine of 
matchless height and straitness, affording timber of excellent quality in suf- 
ficient quantities to construct the road in its progress through it. 

'• Thence through Mississippi, and Tennessee, and Kentucky, where the 
line will run, the natural surface of the soil is said to offer no obstacles to 
obtain a strait route of easy grades, without heavy excavations or embank- 
ments. The character of the grading will be of the easiest description, 
there being no rock to encounter except at the northern termination of the 
route, near the Tennessee and Ohio rivers. Through the eastern part of 
Mississippi the route will pass over prairies from five to ten miles wide, and 
from twenty to thirty miles long. From surveys made for railroads through 
the western district of Tennessee, the natural level of the country is repre- 
sented to offer so many desirable routes in this respect, that the chief diffi- 
culty will, perhaps, be in selecting the most favorable. Parrallel to the 
Mississippi and Tennessee rivers are two ridges of highlands, on either of 
which the road might be located to advantage. 

" The main line can be made to form a junction with the Tennessee river 
at or near Savannah, or at Perryville, which is in the vicinity of extensive 
beds of iron ore. At either place it would intercept the trade of the vallies 
on both sides of the Tennessee river, which now has to perform a tedious 
voyage around by the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers, of from four 
to five hundred miles before it arrives at the same parallel of latitude as the 
point of departure. From either Perryville or Savannah, at the great el- 
bow formed by the Tennessee river, a branch might be made to Nashville, 
avoiding altogether the Cumberland Mountains, which present many ob- 
stacles of a serious kind to any other approach to Nashville from the sea- 
ports on the South Atlantic coasts. This branch to Nashville will form a 
link of the great chain of railroads now being projected to connect the 
Eat torn and Middle with the Southern States, by running a line of railroads 
to the south and east of the Ohio river, and of which the Baltimore and 
Ohio railroad is the commencement. By the proposed route, Nashville can 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 407 

have a much more direct and expeditious communication, with a better sea- 
port for her purposes, and by far, over a more favorable route than by the 
route she is now seeking to establish, via Chattanooga. That this branch 
to Nashville, considered as a part of a line which must be formed at no dis- 
tant day to connect the Northern, Eastern, Middle and Southern States 
together, is of great importance, there can be no question, when it i>s con- 
sidered that it will run through some of the richest agricultural portions of 
the Union. 

" Through the Western District of Tennessee are inexhaustible beds of 
marl, cropping out at the surface. This valuable material for agricultural 
purposes will form a great article of transport. 

" There is no route for a railroad in the Union to compare with this. — 
Here is a main continuous line of 440 miles in length, running, without 
crossing navigable rivers or mountains, through the richest portions of three 
of the most productive States, where they are, in a great measure, deprived 
of all kinds of communication, terminating at one end at a desirable sea- 
port, and at the other where it can command the trade and travel of eight 
States and the western territories, with latteral branches extending by short 
distances into the richest and most varied agricultural and mineral regions, 
which, although passing through different State governments, will be gov- 
erned throughout by the same laws, subject to the same institutions, and 
will be under the same management and responsibility." 

If this Mobile project be too vast for early ol eventual exe- 
cution, the sagacity of those who have charge of it, will not 
fail to discover how much better it would be to make the 
northern terminus on the Tennessee river, where it makes its 
great bend through the State, than to permit it to fail altogether. 
This would reduce its magnitude to a size entirely practicable, 
and be to the city of Mobile scarcely less profitable. To that 
point at or below the town of Waterloo, the Tennessee is easily 
navigable at all seasons of the year by most of the steamboats 
that ply on our western waters. Such a terminus would there- 
fore be perfectly accessible to all the commerce of the Cum- 
berland, the Ohio, the Mississippi, and Missouri, which might 
seek an outlet through the Bay of Mobile. Much of the West- 
ern District would still be deeply interested in its success, and 
the State would doubtless aid and encourage the project pre- 
sented in either form, by all the means which could at any 
time be fairly and justly appropriated to its advancement. 

The present period, however, is much more favorable to the 
execution of internal improvements by the enterprise and capi- 
tal of individuals, than by the direct appropriations of the 



408 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



States. There are but few of them who have not, on former 
occasions, either for banking or improvement purposes, con- 
tracted as large a public debt, as they now have any ability to 
meet. This is certainly so with regard to the State of Ten- 
nessee. So far, she has been entirely able to save herself from 
the reproach of having failed to meet her liabilities. A pro- 
per sense of pride, justice and honor, should restrain her from 
now creating against herself any new liabilities which she may 
have no means of meeting, even for the accomplishment of the 
most inviting project of prospective usefulness. On the other 
hand, the people, unlike the States, are less involved in debt at 
this time, than at any recent period. They have been blessed 
generally with good crops for several years, which have com- 
manded remunerating prices. Other pursuits are understood 
also to have been eminently successful, so that all classes of 
the community have more ability than usual to patronise and 
encourage all safe and profitable projects that may be pre- 
sented. 

It is to this individual ability, and to the weli known sagacity 
of our people, prompting them readily to engage in all safe and 
profitable investments, that we ought mainly to look, at least, 
for the present, for the further extension of our system of Inter- 
nal Improvements. 

It the discharge of the various duties which devolve upon 
you, none will require more earnest investigation and patient 
deliberation, than those connected with the important interests 
which the people have in the successful management of the 
Bank of Tennessee. You cannot exercise too much care in 
looking into its present condition and its past management, 
with the view of discovering any defects that may exist in its 
present organization, and of devising the best measures for 
increasing its usefulness and prosperity. When it went into 
operation it was regarded by many as an experiment which 
would inevitably terminate disastrously at an early day. The 
absence of the grand conservative principle of individual in- 
terests was the alleged capital defect in its organization, on 
which these predictions were based of its early failure. To 
this suggestion it was answered, that the combination of the 
interests of Internal Improvements and Education with Uank- 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE, 409 

ing, would furnish a substitute for individual interest equally 
efficacious in securing a faithful and successful administration 
of its affairs. The experiment has now been on trial for nine 
years, a period sufficiently long to enable you to form a re- 
liable opinion as to the probable success or failure of the ex- 
periment. 

In a cheerful investigation into its past operations and its 
present condition, shall satisfy you that it has failed to accom- 
plish in a reasonable degree the important objects of its crea- 
tion, and that it is destined unavoidably to end in ruin and dis- 
aster, it would become your imperious duty to avert the threat- 
ened blow by an immediate provision for the gradual settle- 
ment and liquidation of its affairs. If, on the contrary, such 
an investigation shall produce the conviction, that the experi- 
ment has proved reasonably successful, and that the public 
interest would be promoted by its continuance, the duty of 
exerting the most possible vigilance in guarding it against 
future mismanagement and misfortunes, will devolve upon you. 

Without assuming to pass sentence on the wisdom of estab- 
lishing the Bank at all, or of uniting in one system the inter- 
est of banking, internal improvement and education, I have 
no hesitation in announcing to you that my investigations into 
its past transactions and its present condition, have disclosed 
to my mind no satisfactory reasons for recommending its dis- 
continuance and abandonment. So far as the Dank was 
designed to furnish a sound and safe circulating medium, it 
must be admitted that it has been thus far successful. Its in- 
fluence in mitigating the pressure of the pecuniary embarrass- 
ment which prevailed during the several years of its existence 
has been universally acknowledged. 

The friends of education have abundant cause to be well 
pleased with its promptness and fidelity in the fulfilment of 
its obligations to Common Schools and Academies, whilst the 
present high credit enjoyed by our State securities fully attest 
its successful management of that branch of our financial 
affairs which have devolved upon it. Within the last nine 
years the bank has paid an aggregate sum of more than two 
millions of dollars, which has been appropriated by the State 
in dilfusing the benefits of education and in the payment of the 



410 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

accruing interest on her debt. Within the same period the 
nett profits of the institution have fallen but little short of two 
millions of dollars, showing an annual average profit of two 
hundred and sixty thousand dollars, an amount equal to nearly 
eight per cent, on its actual capital. 

These results would seem to go very far towards proving that 
the experiment has been successful, and must have a strong 
tendency to dissipate the fears of those who have looked to its 
failure as inevitable — unless it shall be found upon investiga- 
tion, that the losses sustained have been unreasonably large. 

In the examination of this point, it will become material to 
ascertain at what period of time the largest portion of the 
losses have occurred, and if it shall be found, as it is belived to 
be true, that they occurred at an early period, and before cer- 
tain important amendments were made to the charter, and that 
very little has been lost since that time, it will rather furnish 
a reason for an increased diligence in seeking for other defects, 
than for the total abandonment and annihilation of the system. 
The main ground on which it has been unsuccessful in accom- 
plishing the objects of its creation, is furnished by the fact that 
its annual profits are not sufficient to meet the annual pay- 
ments required to be made. This objection should have but 
little weight, if the burdens impossed upon it are unreasona- 
bly great, and that this is the case, will admit of no doubt, 
when it is recollected that the payments required to be made 
annually amount to about two hundred and seventy thousand 
dollars — an amount equal to more than nine per cent, on its 
actual capital. 

In coming to the conclusion that the Bank ought not to be 
discontinued and wound up under existing circumstances, 
(whatever my opinions about banks of paper issue may be,) 
I have not failed to be duly impressed by the unavoidable 
pressure in our monetery affairs, which would be produced by 
the withdrawal of so large a portion of our circulating medium, 
as is now furnished by it, and by the collection of so large an 
amount of debts as are due to it. This pressure might be 
greatly mitigated, but could not be entirely avoided by adopt- 
ing a liberal policy in the gradual liquidation of its affairs ; 
nor have I overlooked the difficulties and embarrassments 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 411 

which would be encountered in providing the means of meet- 
ing; the liabilities impossed upon the Bank during the time 
required for its liquidation. 

Influenced by these considerations, I cannot recommend the 
discontinuance of the Bank, but instead thereof, your atten- 
tion is most earnestly invited to the investigation of such meas- 
ures as shall promise to increase its profits, and render them 
sufficient to meet its liabilities. In view of the fact that for 
several years past the profits made at most of its Branches 
have been greater than those made at the principal Bank in 
proportion to the capital respectively employed by them, I sub- 
mit to you whether the three branches now in a state of pro- 
cess of liquidation, may not be advantageously restored. In 
making this suggestion it is proper for me to remark that it is 
founded on information not possessed at the former session of 
the General Assembly, and is not intended as a condemnation 
of the act by which these branches were discontinued — that 
act might well be justified under the impressions which pre- 
vailed at the time of its passage. 

It is now believed, however, that the progress made in settling 
their affairs will show that these impressions were materially 
erroneous, and that the losses sustained ought not to prejudice the 
claims of those interested to the restoration of these branches — 
being fully satisfied from a careful view of the character of the 
population interested, the anxiety which exist amongst them for 
additional banking facilities, (whilst the present form of the 
banking system continues,) and the increasing commercial in- 
terest at each of the places, I am constrained to recommend 
to you that these branches be restored. In connection with 
this subject I feel it also my duty to call your attention to the 
claims of the city of Memphis to an increase of its banking 
facilities. The rapid growth of this flourishing city, based on 
its proper commercial interests and advantages, would indicate 
it as one of the most eligible points in the State for profitable 
banking, and under this conviction, if you determine in favor 
of the continuance of the principal Bank, I recommend the 
establishment of a Branch or Agency of the Bank of Tennes- 
see at Memphis, with such capital as can be advantageously 
furnished by the institution. But I cannot indulge the hope 



412 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

•that the adoption of these suggestions would enable the Bank 
to increase its profits to such an extent as would meet all of 
its liabilities — the necessity would therefore still exist for an 
investigation of the best means of diminishing the present lia- 
bilities of the Bank. These liabilities at present amount to 
about two hundred and seventy thousand dollars annually 
whilst the annual average profits, heretofore, have been about 
two hundred and sixteen thousand dollars. 

By an act passed in 1844, the Treasury is required to make 
up the deficiency unavoidably occurring on account of the ina- 
bility of the Bank to make profits sufficient to meet the liabili- 
ties chargeable upon it. I submit to you whether a sinking 
fund could not be set apart by the treasury, without any in- 
crease of taxation, to be annually vested in the purchase of 
State Bonds at their current value, as a means of gradually 
reducing the liabilities of the Bank to a sum that would not 
exceed the amount of its profits. This suggestion will receive 
additional weight from the consideration, that under existing 
circumstances, the deficiency may be permanent, and therefore 
constitute a permanent drain upon the treasury. It is believed 
that a sinking fund of one hundred thousand dollars, furnished 
by the treasury for five years, would so far reduce the State 
debt, and consequently the liabilities of the bank, as would en- 
able the institution after that time to meet all burdens imposed 
upon it. 

It gives me great pleasure to express to you the belief, that 
the bank has been faithfully and satisfactorily managed during 
the last two years. 

The report of the President and Directors will contain all 
the information necessary to enable you to understand its 
present condition, and to devise the proper measures for ren- 
dering it more useful and profitable in the future, whilst it will 
exhibit a very large increase of the profits during the last two 
years. 

Since the last session of the General Assembly, a war has 
been declared to exist between the United States and the re- 
public of Mexico. The circumstances which led to this decla- 
ration were such as to extort it from the Congress of the United 
States by an almost unanimous vote — abolitionary fanaticism 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE, 413 

alone stood out against it. Every representative from Tennes-: 
see, of both political parties, voted for it. Ten millions of 
money, and authority to call into the public service fifty thou- 
sand volunteers, for the purpose of prosecuting the war to 'a 
safe and honorable peace, were voted by Congress and placed 
into the hands of the President. Under this act, a requisition 
was made on this State on the 16th of May, 1846, for one regi- 
ment of cavalry or mounted men, and two regiments of infan- 
try or riflemen. 

On the receipt of this requisition, I issued my proclamation, 
dated 24th May, 1846, apportioning the call equally and fairly 
among the three grand divisions of the State. It was nobly 
responded to. Instead of three thousand, about thirty thou- 
sand rushed forward with eager anxiety to engage in the ser- 
vice of their country. The call was met so promptly, that the 
troops assembled in advance of any officer of the United States, 
either to muster them into service, or to make those usual ad- 
vances of money so necessary to troops suddenly called on to 
leave their home on so long and distant an expedition. To 
remedy this circumstance, I appointed suitable officers to in- 
spect and muster them into service in their respective quarters 
of the State, rather than subject them to the uncertainty of be- 
ing rejected after they had gone to a distant place of rendez- 
vous. 

To make a suitable advance of money to each officer and 
soldier, to defray all the expenses incident to their encamp- 
ment at Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis, and also subsist 
the East Tennessee troops in their march to the latter city, re- 
quired the negotiation of large sums of money. 

The Union and Planters' Banks, with a patriotism which 
cannot be too highly extolled, promptly stepped forward and 
proposed to lend any sum of money, not exceeding one hun- 
dred thousand dollars each, which might be demanded by the 
occasion. Without any law authorizing me to borrow money 
for this or any other purpose, but unwilling to submit to any 
delay, I took the responsibility of negotiating with the Union 
Bank for some sixty or seventy thousand dollars, which were 
applied to the above objects of expenditure. So soon, however, 
as our troops were gone, and the state of my official business 



414 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

would allow of it, I repaired to Washington City, whilst every 
item of expenditure was fresh in my recollection and those of 
my officers, and presented my accounts for settlement; and I 
am happy to say they were promptly but thoroughly examined, 
and allowed by the proper department, with perhaps the single 
exception of interest, for which no existing law of Congress 
was supposed to provide, but which, I doubt not, will be here- 
after adjusted satisfactorily to the bank. It is with pleasure, 
therefore, that I inform you that in going beyond the law, and 
assuming the responsibility of raising this sum of money as 
the Chief Magistrate of the State, no debt was incurred by 
which the State can be in any wise injured. 

The advances that made this unauthorized negotiation ne- 
cessary, were indispensable to the comfort of the troops. 
Volunteers suddenly called on to leave their homes on such a 
campaign, could not well afford to equip themselves out of 
their own private means, and to support themselves in their 
respective encampments until the arrival of the officers of the 
United States, who had no idea of so prompt and earl}* a move- 
ment, for such had been unknown before in the volunteer ser- 
vice of the United States ; nor could the East Tennessee volun- 
teers, suddenly called on to march four or five hundred miles 
to Memphis, be expected to be prepared with ready means of 
their own to bear their expenses. 

But whilst I took on myself as the Executive of the State to 
make this negotiation, I endeavored to consult the most rigid 
economy, and to make only such accounts as the United States 
would recognize as just, and to appoint only such officers as 
they would think to be absolutely necessary. Under this view 
of a just and proper economy, I left the troops (except those of 
East Tennessee, on account of their distance) to subsist them- 
selves on their travel from their respective neighborhoods to the 
places of rendezvous, precisely as is done by the laws and reg- 
ulations of the United States. But I established encamp- 
ments at Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis, for the reception 
of them as fast as they should arrive, where they were attended 
to by one or two suitable officers, and supplied with the same 
rations as are allowed by the United States to their own troops. 
These arrangements, I am happy to believe, proved entirely 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 415 

satisfactory, not only to the United States, but to the troops 
themselves, with perhaps a solitary exception, which, as it 
relates to my Executive action in carrying out the requisition 
on this State, is here submitted for your consideration. 

On the 6th of June, 1846, 1 received the following commu- 
nication, recently found, after diligent search, and which I had 
supposed might have been thrown aside, as not important to 
be preserved : 

" Camp Brown, June 5th , 1846. 
" To the Hon. A. V. Brown, Governor, &c. 

" Dear Sir : On to-morrow evening I will have the honor of leading 
ninety-four of the gallant sons of Giles County to an encampment on 
Brown's Creek. By the request of the company I have the honor to ask 
of you the- favor of selecting us a proper and judicious place of encamp- 
ment, where we can have water and rest on Sunday. We have camp equip- 
age and a wagon, and will be prepared to take care of ourselves in soldiers' 
style. We expect to be ready to be mustered into service on Monday 
morning. 

" I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant and friend, 
(Signed) " MILTON A. HAYNES, 

" Captain Giles County Mounted Riflemen." 

This communication was not addressed to me as a private 
individual — it was addressed to me as Governor of the State, 
and delivered to me at my office as such. It spoke nothing of 
one night, but several nights, and the greater part at least of 
the two days. 

It made no allusion to going at all to the encampment. It 
asked no privilege of encamping on my grounds, nor did it in 
the slightest degree, in form or manner, call up the question 
of my individual hospitality. It avowed the intention to en- 
camp on Brown's Creek, a small stream of excellent water 
directly on the road, which had borne that name from the ear- 
liest settlement of the country, and on which I had no lots or 
grounds at all. Regarding it, therefore, as an application to 
me as the Executive of the State, for the selection of a public 
and additional encampment to the one already at Nashville, 
I returned the following answer, in accordance with the advice 
of the Adjutant General of the State and of my own sense of 

duty and propriety. 

28 



416 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

u Nashville, June 6th, 1846. 

" I have no opportunity to procure an encampment in the neighborhood 
you mention, and no officer to send to attend you. My encampment at 
Nashville is at the Race Track, where some of the troops are yet encamp- 
ed, where you and company can have provisions and horse feed provided. 

" In haste, yours, &c. 
(Signed) AARON V. BROWN." 

This reply was predicated on the idea, that to furnish, as I 
had done, the three encampments at Knoxville, at Nashville, 
and at Memphis, with suitable officers to attend them, 
was all that a just sense of economy and the practice in all 
such cases, both in and out of the State, would allow of; 
besides, I was by no means confident that the United States 
would settle the accounts made at two separate encampments 
so near Nashville. 

No other volunteer company had received any such special 
accommodation, and I desired to mete out the same measure 
of justice to all. To avoid all difficulties and complaints, and 
to enable the company to reach a better and more comforta- 
ble encampment than it was possible to furnish at Brown's 
Creek, I threw open the doors of my general encampment and 
invited them, by a march of an hour long, to partake, with 
their brother soldiers, of its ample supplies and accomodations. 

I lay these precise facts before you, that they may go upon 
the permanent records of the country, repelling, as they do, 
every idea of Executive inhospitality to these brave and gal- 
lant men. 

To my Quartermaster General, G. W. Rowles, and to Major 
General Brazelton, and to Inspector General Coe, and Major 
General Hays, I am under, and the volunteer service of ihe 
State is under, many obligations for the promptitude, skill, 
and energy with which they conducted the operations in the 
respective divisions of the State. 

In the transactions of the middle portion of the State, I can- 
not withhold from Major General Bradley, and Adjutant Gen- 
eral Turner, equal expressions of gratitude for the services 
which they rendered. 

Early in the month of June, the three regiments, (two only 
fully organized) were handed over to the United States. They 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 417 

were the flower and chivalry of the State. The sons of those 
worthy sires who, under Jackson, Carroll and Coffee, in former 
days, had shed so much lustre around the name of Tennessee. 
Would these, their descendants, prove themselves worthy of 
such illustrious ancestors ? 

I did not doubt it — no one doubted it — they went forth in a 
just cause. Not one of them felt that it was an unjust one, 
or they would not have gone. They went forth, and on every 
battle-field, at Monterey, at Vera Cruz, at Cerro Gordo, they 
performed deeds of heroic valor, worthy of Tennessee in the 
proudest days of her glory. But it was not on the battle-field 
alone, that your regiments bore your banner so high and so 
proudly. In the toilsome march, beneath the burning sun, in 
the pestilential encampment, everywhere, and under all cir- 
cumstances, your volunteers well sustained the honor of the 
State. In behalf of our whole people, I recommend the strong- 
est expression of public gratitude and admiration for their he- 
roic services, and that a full register of the names of every 
soldier of the three regiments be made out and safely deposited 
in the new capitol, when completed, that posterity may know 
who they were that contributed so largely to the honor and 
glory of the Commonwealth. Let the State contribute largely 
to the erection of some lofty monument to the memory of those 
who fell, either in battle or by disease, in the prosecution of a 
war, which could not have been avoided without a sacrifice of 
national honor, dignity, and character. 

But the patriotic devotion of our fellow-citizens has been 
tested by another requisition, recently made for two more 
Regiments of Infantry from the State. It is with no common 
degree of pride that I announce the pleasing fact to you, that 
notwithstanding the many appeals made to the people of the 
State, through a portion of the public press, and the debates 
and discussions of the past summer, against the justice, pro- 
priety and necessity of the Mexican war, the chivalrous sons 
of Tennessee have responded to the call with a noble enthusiasm. 

Five companies were called for by my proclamations from 
each Major General's division in the State, thereby giving, as 
on the former occasion, a fair and equal chance to the citizens 
of every portion of the State. 



418 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



Many more companies reported themselves than could be 
selected to fill the requisition, whilst many others were known 
of who were in a forward state of completion, when the time 
arrived for making selections. It cannot, I hope, be consid- 
ered invidious to mention, that East Tennessee was peculiarly 
chivalrous on the occasion, having furnished not only the five 
companies called for, but tendered ten other companies besides, 
composed of her brave and hardy sons. The officers of the 
United States having learned, by experience, something of the 
promptitude and celerity with which the citizen soldiers of Ten- 
nessee always rush to the standard of their country, have 
promptly repaired to the State to aid in carrying out the move- 
ment, exempting the Executive from much of the labor and 
responsibility of a former occasion. The volunteers are now 
on their way to their respective encampments at Nashville and 
Memphis, where they will be regularly organized into Regi- 
ments, and pass over to the command and service of the United 
States. If the war continues, the whole community cannot but 
feel the deepest interest in the future destination and fortunes 
of these brave and gallant men. 

The career of their predecessors in this war has been so dis- 
tinguished — for their patience under fatigue, for their ready 
obedience to the command of their officers, for their undaunted 
courage in the face of the enemy — that it would be difficult to 
emulate their bright and glorious example. But I hazard 
nothing when I assure you that these regiments will go forth 
nerved to new energies by that high example, and firmly resolv- 
ed, living or dying, to add new lustre to the name and char- 
acter of Tennessee. 

But at the moment when I am writing down these proud and 
pleasing assurances, the news may be brought to us that a 
treaty has been made, terminating the war between the two 
nations. I should hail with rapture and delight the bright and 
beautiful Goddess of Peace, at whose shrine the American peo- 
ple have always delighted to worship. Her return would be 
more welcome, because she will doubtless bring with her all 
that was ever demanded — " indemnity for the past, security 
for the future." This was all that the Administration at Wash- 
ington—the President, and his friends in Congress and through- 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE, 419 

out the Union — all that the Commanding General in his Pro- 
clamation in the earilest stages of the war ever demanded. 
The territory she is expected to bring will be stained with no 
blood unjustly shed, in the proud and lustful spirit of conquest. 
She will bring it as the only indemnity Mexico can offer against 
the expenses we have incurred in the prosecution of a war, 
which Mexico herself was the first to proclaim, and first to 
commence. A war originating in Mexico's unjust attempt to 
reconquer a territory which had been, under all the forms of 
our Constitution, made one of the States of the Union ; a war 
which she wantonly and wickedly provoked by an invasion of 
that part of Texas lying east of the Lower Rio Grande, to 
which our title extended (whatever might be said of the Upper 
Rio Grande) without a shadow of a doubt. But I cannot shut 
my eyes to the great fact, that there are many persons, of this 
State and elsewhere, who, in anticipation of a result such as 
we are now considering, have labored hard to convince the 
people that, if indemnity in land against the expenses of this 
war, and for the purpose of paying the millions that are due 
to our citizens, should be willingly offered by Mexico, such an 
indemnity should be scorned andrejected. Whether the infatu- 
ation of party will persist in such doctrine, remains to be seen. 
But I most earnestly recommend to this General Assembly, 
never to adjourn until you have instructed your Senators and 
requested your Representatives not to vote against a treaty of 
peace, or refuse the necessary appropriation to carry it into 
effect, only because it may contain a cession of territory to the 
United States. Indemnity against the war, I hold to be clearly 
right — Mexico herself, I doubt not, will so consider it. Shall 
the United States reject the indemnity because it may be in 
land, and not in money ? She has not the latter to pay, and 
the former constitutes her only remaining resource. It will, 
therefore, be indemnity in land or nothing. / repeat, in land or 
notliing. What wise or sensible man, in the management of 
his private affairs, would reject a payment in land when his 
debtor had no other resource left, with which to satisfy his de- 
mand ? The pica that our country is large enough already, 
takes no account of the future millions of freemen who are to 
nhabit it. The natural increase of our own population — the 



420 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

amazing emigration to the United States from the starving 
and oppressed nations of the old World — the genius, industry, 
and enterprise of the Anglo-Saxon race — all unite in demand- 
ing that our country should be extended from ocean to ocean — 
widened out in all her borders, whenever it can be done con- 
sistently with the dictates of national honor and justice. Such 
an opportunity will now be offered freely to us, and perhaps 
for the last time in the history of our country. 

The pretext that any new accession of territory, may en- 
danger the perpetuation of our glorious Union, is only a shal- 
low device for alarming the timid and deceiving the ignorant. 

The same cry was raised when Louisiana, extending from 
the Gulf to the Northern Lakes, was acquired — the same when 
Missouri was admitted — when Florida was purchased — when 
Texas, neither conquered nor purchased, walked into our Union 
by sovereign compact and agreement. The Union dissolved ! ! 
dissolved by the growth and enlargement of our free and happy 
Republic!! No. It grows stronger and stronger by it; the 
very elements of perpetuation being increased in the exact 
proportion of its contemplated magnitude. The spirit of mod- 
ern abolitionism, if it existed at all in the early days of the 
Republic, stood rebuked by the Constitution. It stood equally 
rebuked in the Missouri compromise, which was but a virtual 
continuation of that of the Constitution. So it will be in the 
extension of the same line on latitude thirty-six thirty, through 
the newly acquired territory of California. What a beauti- 
ful harmony in our national action would then be exhibited ! 
Our revolutionary fathers inadjusting the proportion of the 
f.ee and slaveholding States, substantially fixed it on latitude 
thirty-six thirty. The next generation (for the Revolution- 
ary one had nearly departed,) then extended that line through 
the newly acquired territory from France, and now it is pro- 
posed (and to this I give my assent, and earnestly recommend 
that you give yours) to extend this line still westward, through 
the territory which may be ceded to us by Mexico, to the shores 
of the Pacific. This being done, the great strife and conten- 
tion about slavery, we may hope, will be settled and ended 
forever. Then no " Wilmot proviso" will break upon our 
repose, like a fire-bell by night. The line of separation will be 



GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE. 421 

fixed. All men would understand it and conform to it, in the 
formation of States. JVor need the conscientious and sincere 
friend of the black race, (for there are many such) be in the 
slighest degree apprehensive that slavery, though permitted to 
exist south of that line, would ever be, in fact, established in any 
one of the States of California. The character of the coun- 
try — the nature of its resources — the insecurity of such pro- 
perty on many accounts, would deter any slaveholder from 
taking that description of property with him. The question 
about slavery, therefore, loses much, if not all, its practical im- 
portance in relation to the territory now to be acquired from 
Mexico, as has been truly said by one of our greatest states- 
men, and said, too, at a most auspicious moment for the peace 
and harmony of our country. The Union, therefore, I hold to 
be in no danger from any new accession of territory. I believe 
that, under the Providence of God, it is destined to last and 
endure forever, stretching, like the beautiful rainbow of Hope 
and of Promise, until it bespans this whole continent. 

A vacancy has occurred in the Supreme Court by the resig- 
nation of Judge Reese, now on file, to take effect from the first 
day of the present month, which places it in the power of the 
General Assembly to fill it, without the intervention of the Exe- 
cutive. Another vacancy occurred in the 4th Judical Circuit, 
by the death of Judge Cannon, which was temporarily filled by 
George W. Rowles, Esq. Vacancies in the 4th, 8th, and 10th 
Solicitorial Districts have been filled by the appointment of Mr. 
Joseph E. Pickitt, of Carthage ; Mr. J. P. Campbell, of Columbia; 
and Mr. T. P. Scurlock, of Jackson, whose commissions will 
expire with the close of the present Legislature. Mr. Nelson, 
Register of the Mountain District, having resigned, the vacancy 
was filled by the appointment of Mr. J. H. Minnis, and subse . 
quently, on his resignation, by the appointment of Mr. J. F. 
Brown, of Sparta. 

It will also be your duty to elect a Senator to Congress, to 
supply the place of the Hon. Spencer Jarnagin, whose term of 
service expired on the 4th of March last. I need not antici- 
pate, by a single remark, the care with which you will select 
some individual, eminent for his ability and patriotism, to fill 



422 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

this exalted station, at a crisis so important, to the honor and 
welfare of the nation. 

I have now presented to your consideration all the subjects 
which I desire to present before you, and close this communica- 
tion with the sincere and confident hope that your delibera- 
tions may be distinguished for their harmony, and may result 
in the advancement of the best interests and welfare of the 
State. I have the honor to be, 

Your obedient servant, 

AARON V. BROWN. 

Executive Office, October, 1847. 



VALEDICTORY ADDRESS 

Of Ex-Gov. Aaron V. Brown, delivered October, 1847. 



Gentlemen of the Senate 

and of the House of Representatives : 

I present myself before you to-day, that I may lay down, in 
your presence, all the power and authority appertaining to the 
Executive office of the State — to lay them down at the feet of 
the Constitution, that you may presently confer them, in due 
form, on my honorable successor. Such has been the declared 
will of my fellow-citizens, and to their decision I bow, without 
murmur or regret. 

In the two years, during which I have filled the exalted office 
from which I am now retiring, events of the greatest magni- 
tude have been crowding upon us. The annexaiion of Texas, 
although commencing before, has been consummated, adding 
an empire to the republic ; an empire, large as modern France, 
with a soil rich as that of Egypt, and a climate soft and deli- 
cious as that of enchanting Italy. The settlement of the Ore- 
gon question confirmed our title to another empire, larger than 
the first, and extended the now undisputed boundaries of the 
republic to the shores of the Pacific. When these two great 
events are contemplated together, what an amazing spectacle 
of territorial grandeur does our country at this day exhibit !! 

At first we had but thirteen States, stretching in narrow, but 
dazzling brightness, all along the shores of the Atlantic. In a 
few years, our population scaled the eastern mountains — 



424 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

poured itself into the great valley of the Mississippi, felling 
its ancient and unbroken forest, building up towns and cities, 
rearing halls of science, and temples of religion, until what in 
the old world would have required a long succession of ages 
for its accomplishment, is here presented as the magic work of 
a single generation. 

But, in addition to all this, what do we now behold? Yet 
another empire, large as Texas and Oregon both put together, 
subdued by our arms, subjected by the law of nations to our 
military government, and destined, as I believe, and hope, ere 
long, to constitute an integral portion of our great republic. 
Wonderful nation ! ! Stretching from ocean to ocean, and 
from the Gulf of Mexico to the great inland Seas of the north ! ! 
Millions yet unborn, the sons and daughters of freedom, who 
are hereafter to inhabit this continent, will bless and honor the 
memories of those illustrious statesmen and patriots who have 
made or confirmed these amazing accessions to our country. 

But it is not the physical grandeur of our country alone, 
which should challenge our patriotic emotions. After a long 
period of profound peace, when her old and renowned warriors, 
who used to adorn her camps and her history, had all been 
"gathered to their fathers," she has raised and set forth a new 
race of heroes, whose gallant deeds at Monterey, at Buena 
Vista, at Vera Cruz, at Cerro Gordo, and at the late great bat- 
tles before the City of Mexico, have filled America with joy, 
and the world with admiration. 

Nor yet is it her amazing expansion, nor the heroic deeds of 
her warriors, that should challenge our highest degree of patri- 
otic ardor. No, it is not these, great and dazzling as they 
may be, — it is from our sacred Constitution, securing to us our 
civil and religious liberties, and from our glorious Union, pro- 
tecting us in their enjoyment against all foreign enemies, that 
the patriot should draw his deepest and holiest emotions. By 
these he should be chiefly inspired, humbly to supplicate that 
they might last and endure forever — 

" Till wrapt in flames the realms of ether glow, 
And Heaven's last thunder shakes the world below." 

Turning from this bright and animating picture of national 



VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. 425 

greatness, let us look to the no less cheering and happy con? 
dition of our own beloved and honored Tennessee. 

You and I (turning to the Governor elect) have lately tra- 
versed her in all her borders ; we have scaled her eastern moun- 
tains ; we have penetrated her rich, luxuriant valleys ; we have 
reposed on the banks of that mighty river which marks her 
western boundary; everywhere we have seen a contented, 
happy, and patriotic people — a people exempt from debt — their 
industry crowned with abundance — their institutions of learn- 
ing crowded with the votaries of science ; whilst religion is 
ministering to them her consolations in all her consecrated 
temples. Such are the people, and such their condition at the 
moment when you are called to preside over their destinies. I 
congratulate my fellow-citizens that such is their condition, in 
despite of all the prophetic annunciations of approaching ruin. 
The ocean and the lakes have become no vast solitudes. The 
husbandman has not been driven from his home by the stench 
of the rotting productions of his farm. The industrious manu- 
facturer has not been doomed to abandon his loom and his 
work-shop for the already too much crowded pursuits of agri- 
culture. No. Thanks to a kind and overruling Providence. 
Thanks to the industry, sobriety, and enterprise of our people. 
Thanks to the wisdom and patriotism of our rulers, however 
much they have been reviled and persecuted. 

Thanks to all these, that prosperity, like an angel, is still 
hovering and smiling over our State and nation. 

I should have rejoiced, gentlemen, if, on my retiring from of- 
fice, I could have congratulated you and my fellow-citizens at 
large on the return of peace. 

That beautiful goddess is yet standing on the confines of 
Biexico, holding out the olive branch to our deluded and obsti- 
nate enemy. Our victorious arms have wrested from her city 
after city, and province after province, until our star-spangled 
banner is this day proudly waving over the halls of the Monte- 
zumas. But let it be ever recorded, let all Christendom know, 
that not a gun has been fired, not a city has been taken, not a 
province has been invaded, without our having first tendered to 
her the terms of a just and honorable peace. "These terms 
were indemnity for the past and security for the future" — in- 



420 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



demnity for the millions due to our citizens — indemnity for the 
millions which we have expended in the prosecution of a war 
which she was the first to declare, and the first to commence — 
security against any further invasion of territory, which has 
been made a part of our Union under all the forms of the 
Constitution, and to which she has no shadow of right, by the 
solemn declaration of every civilized nation in the world. 
This indemnity and security we will have. She may fly from 
her capital to her mountains, but our victorious eagles will pur- 
sue her to their loftiest summit, and the thunder of our cannon 
will extort it from her. 

With the return of peace with Mexico, with no cause of fu- 
ture irritation with any foreign nation, with all the elements 
essential to national greatness, what prophetic spirit can an- 
ticipate the future growth and progress of our nation — all that 
the heart can desire — all that the imagination can conceive of 
— lies before us. How brilliant, how animating the prospect ! 
If we are true to ourselves, true to the Constitution, true to our 
bright and glorious Union, earth has no happiness, Heaven has 
no blessings, which may not belong to the people of the United 
States. 

But, gentlemen, pleasing and delightful as are these medita- 
tions, I must not and will not forget that the chief honors and 
ceremonies of this occasion are intended for another, I there- 
fore conclude, by tendering, to you all, the homage of my pro- 
found respect. 



REMARKS 

Of Mr. A. V. Brown in the Senate of Tennessee, on presenting 

the Resolutions proposing to give the Election of President 

directly to the People, on Thursday, Oct. 18, 1827. 



Mr. Brown laid on the table of the Senate the following Reso- 
lutions and remarks : 

Resolved, By the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That the 
Constitution of the United States should be so amended, as to give the elec- 
tion of President and Vice President directly and conclusively to the peo- 
ple, preserving the present relative weight of the several States in the 
election. 

Resolved, That many of the measures of the present admiuistration of 
the general government are injurious to the interests, and dangerous to the 
liberties of the country. 

Resolved, That the surest remedy for these evils, now in the power of the 
people, is the election of Andrew Jackson to the Chief Magistracy of the 
Union. 

The mode of appointing the President, as now prescribed by 
the Federal Constitution, has been the source of so much in- 
convenience, and is the subject of such general discontent, 
that a sufficient reason for recommending its amendment need 
not be sought in the experimental nature of the instrument it- 
self. The evils inherent in the last election, and the anxieties 
connected with the next, give it a claim to public deliberation, 
which none but the selfish and the servile can disregard. It 
cannot be fairly denied, that the choice of our Chief Magis- 
trate was intended to spring from the free and unobstructed 
judgment of the people; and it must be admitted, that in the 



428 ELECTION OF PRESIDENT BY THE PEOPLE. 

late election, which was conducted according to the forma of 
the Constitution, that intention was disappointed. A charter, 
the letter of which conflicts with its spirit, the details of which 
counteract its principles, is certainly defective. On the occa- 
sion alluded to, the candidate who, in the primary election, ob- 
tained the highest number of votes, and at the moment of final 
competition bore incontestible evidence of being the choice of a 
majority of the American people — evidence which subsequent 
popular decisions have confirmed, was superceded by a combi- 
nation, that triumphed only because the competition was trans- 
ferred to a small pre-existing body of electors, of which one 
party to the combination was an influential member. 

The crisis was calculated to awaken the worst designs of 
selfish ambition ; and if the motives of men are to be deter- 
mined by their actions, seems to have had its sinister opportu- 
nities fully employed. According to Mr. Adams' declarations 
in his book on the fisheries, as well as to recollections and con- 
victions resulting from the public observation of public men, 
political hostility and personal estrangement had for several 
years, and on momentous subjects, separated himself and ?*Ir. 
Clay. No approach to union, no inclination for amity, was 
manifested by either, until it was ascertained that as long as 
they obeyed the principles and supported the opinions which 
had formed their respective pretensions and produced their 
avowed opposition, the power at which they grasped was not 
to be gained — that continued disunion would frustrate, and 
that instant combination would gratify their mutual ambition. 
Then, and not till then, long cherished distrust was mutually 
forgotten, oft expressed opinions were practically renounced, 
and adverse principles openly abandoned. Each became the 
artificer of that man's promotion whose depression, up to the 
moment, had been a chief object of his exertions. The high- 
est amount of executive power was divided, and the closest 
fraternity of political fortune was established between them. 
What is enormous, need not be exaggerated; what is flagrant, 
requires no demonstration. Mr. Adams desired the office of 
President — he went into the combination without it, and came 
out with it. Mr. Clay desired that of Secretary of State — he 
went into the combination without it, and came out with it. 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 429 

Of this transaction, the simplest history is the best analysis. 
Where a change of political principles, or even of private es- 
timation, is the immediate cause of personal gain reciprocally 
to the agent and the object of the change, impurity of motive 
is necessarily concluded. Whoever expects otherwise, must 
expect the laws of reasoning, imprinted by the Deity on the 
human mind, to be altered. It is equally certain, that a daring 
ingratitude is displayed by the citizen who insults the majesty 
of the people with the very power which their generous confi- 
dence had placed in his hands. To believe, when proof is in- 
sufficient, is not greater folly than to doubt when it is convinc- 
ing; and where circumstantial evidence is conclusive, positive 
testimony, which is always liable to a corrective collation with 
circumstances, is rather curious than valuable. It was but the 
other day that an atrocious murder in the enlightened State of 
New York was detected and punished upon circumstantial evi- 
dence; and surely a process of reasoning which will sanction 
the destruction of one man's life, is rigorous enough to deter- 
mine the conduct of another. Those who demand stronger 
evidence of an improper understanding between Mr. Adams 
and Mr. Clay than that afforded by their combination itself, 
must be prepared to contend that it is not in the nature of 
things for circumstances to evince guilt, and must be disposed 
to suspend their judgments until the parties confess their 
crimes. It ought, however, to be remembered that all our 
knowledge of motives and character, every decision we form 
respecting mental occurrences, is drawn from the considera- 
tion of circumstances, and that it is out of the ordinary course 
of things for the confession of the accused to precede the sen- 
tence of the proper tribunal. 

The members of this Assembly, therefore, in protesting 
against the election of Mr. Adams as impure and anti-repub- 
lican, are sensible of no precipitancy of judgment, or too great 
a license of language. Unwilling to assert what is doubtful, 
they are determined to speak what is true; nor do they deem it 
necessary to fortify their protest by the numerous collateral 
proofs to be derived either from the contradictions contained in 
the studied vindication of the Secretary of State ; from the 
confessions of his friend, his colleague and his champion ; or 



430 ELECTION OP PRESIDENT BY THE PEOPLE. 

from the pertinent and concurring reminiscences of respecta- 
ble witnesses. The object of these resolutions being remedial, 
not vindictive, it remains, after exemplifying the actual dan- 
ger of the present plan, to show the probable advantage of the 
amendment proposed. In the first place, by giving the elec- 
tion directly and conclusively to the people, we should conform 
to the fundamental principles of our government, which was 
departed from in the formation of the Constitution, from ap- 
prehensions, which experience, as far as it has gone, proves 
not to have been well founded. Another benefit will be, that 
the dependence of the Governor on the governed, so desirable 
in a republic, will be thus effectually secured. A consideration 
of equal moment, both as it regards the theory and practice 
of our government, is to be found in the fact, that an election 
placed entirely in the hands of the people, must result in the 
expression of their choice. This will exclude the formidable 
evils of previous cabals, concomitant corruption, and subse- 
quent resentments. The people will be satisfied with their own 
work, and at succeeding elections, will deliberately confirm or 
prudently correct their former preference. Nor is it probable 
that thereby purity of elections would be obtained at the ex- 
pense of public tranquillity. The turbulence apprehended by 
the framers of the Constitution, is less likely to be excited by 
the process of a fair and open election, than by the conten- 
tions sure to arise, under the present narrow system between 
parties inclining to practice, and parties endeavoring to defeat 
corruption. Besides, the people of the United States are fur- 
ther advanced in the knowledge of self-government than they 
were when the Constitution was adopted ; more capable of 
forming a prudent choice, and of avoiding those convulsions 
to which a less informed community might be exposed by the 
immediate exercise of a right so important. The division of 
the Union into States, and the consequent modification of the 
elective process, will have a tendency to limit, within mode- 
rate bounds, the effect of any agitating impulse ; and it should 
never be forgotten, that when any faculty of government is 
susceptible of salutary exertion by the people, to lodge it with 
a body of trustees, for their benefit, is an odious and pernicious 
departure from the cardinal principles of free government. 



ELECTION OF PRESIDENT BY THE PEOPLE. 431 

These are some of the reasons which may be assigned in 
favor of the first resolution. 

As experience proves that the present system has a ten- 
dency to destroy the purity of elections, it also shows that a 
bad administration is likely to spring from, and re-produce an 
impure election. When a President gets into power with 'so 
small an " approach to unanimity" as to be indebted for his of- 
fice to the rewarded support and obvious tergiversations of his 
most inimical competitor, the motive which reduced him to this 
abasement will naturally prompt him to administer the govern- 
ment, not with a view to the public welfare, but with an eye to,: 
his own popularit}'. Hence those branches of policy which 
time has sanctioned, and the fruits of which, though nutritious 
and substantial, are neither captivating by novelty nor daz- 
zling by splendor, will be neglected for visionary and ambitious 
schemes, devised to amuse the imagination of the public, and 
to reflect on their authors the credit of superior patriotism, in- 
vention and sagacity. With the delusive machinery will be 
combined the influence of Executive patronage, which, in 
most countries, is mighty, and, even in our own, is powerful. 
This great engine will be perverted from its rightful use to the 
purchase of praise for the Executive, and aspersions of its ad- 
versaries ; and should eminent services and virtue render any 
citizen a dangerous competitor for the Presidency, slanders 
proportioned to his merit will be fabricated by interest and im- 
posed on credulity. Such is the natural liistory of power un- 
justly acquired in a free country. Since the last election, ac- 
cordingly, the attention of the general government, averted 
from the salutary relations, which, for a series of years, had 
secured for us the enjoyment of a productive commerce, has 
been devoted to the formation of chimerical and intrusive alli- 
ances, the avowed object of which was an outrage upon the 
spirit and independence of the nations whose religion and laws 
it was proposed to subject to our kind control and supercilious 
care. The mischief of this ambassadorial crusade, of this 
egregious departure from that modesty and reserve (the dic- 
tates of dignity and prudence) which had exalted us in the fam- 
ily of civilized nations, promises to equal the absurdity of its 

conception. Besides the unnecessary and enormous amount 

29 



432 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

of public money expended, and the ridicule and censure of 
foreign nations to which this strange embassy has exposed us 
it will be well for our country if it involves us in no other and 
greater calamities. 

To suit his theory to his practice, the President claims al- 
most boundless authority for the Executive; ejects the Senate 
from all participation in the institution of embassies and the 
commissioning of envoys ; compares the influence of the con- 
stituent on the representative to the effect of paralysis on the 
human body. In the true spirit of arbitrary condescension, he 
displays to the nation fantastical projects of benefaction and 
improvement, befitting the gracious king of star-gazing sub- 
jects, rather than the responsible agent of free people. Nor 
is the profusion with which public money is expended, and the 
mismanagement of the government abroad, greater than its 
profligacy at home. The chief member of the cabinet, whose 
duties require his greatest sagacity and most intense applica- 
tion, annually deserts his department, and displays himself as 
an itinerant Rhetor at electioneering feasts, exceeding some of 
his colleagues in this official degradation only as far as he ex- 
ceeds them in ability. In the days of Washiiigton and Jeffer- 
son, it was not in this manner that the great officers of State were 
employed ; neither Hamilton nor Madison was seen traversing 
various States at seasons of election, to rise before carousing 
multitudes, and to pour forth praises on the President in office, 
whilst the flood-gates of defamation were opened against his 
expected competitor. Those great men never dealt in bois- 
terous harangues, unbecoming the gravity of statesmen; in 
banquet bravadoes, consistent neither with decency or cour- 
age; nor in bold assertions, bearing no comparison with facts. 
One was devotedly engaged in the definition of our rights at 
home, and in the expansion and security of our interests 
abroad, now violated and neglected ; the other was sedulously 
employed in the creation of a system of economy and credit, 
now impaired and abandoned; whilst both had exerted their 
mighty intellects in the formation of that bond of national 
union, which it is the earnest and ardent desire of this General 
Assembly to maintain and perpetuate. They have made this 
brief, but, in their opinion, impartial reference to the conduct of 



ELECTION OF PRESIDENT BY THE PEOPLE. 433 

> 

the present administration, in support of their second resolu- 
tion. 

In regard to the third resolution, it will be sufficient to say, 
that the acknowledged popularity, the established fame, and 
well tried patriotism of Andrew Jackson, designate him as the 
candidate most capable of, and most deserving, a successful 
competition with Mr. Adams. Here he has been known, from 
the dawn of manhood — through the vicissitudes of life and for- 
tune — in peace and in war — and we speak the sentiments of 
our constituents, as well as our own, when we declare that the 
fire of youth never impelled him beyond the bounds of honor, 
and that the coldness of age has not made him deaf to the 
voice of patriotism. As a man, he has always enjoyed our pe- 
culiar esteem ; and as a public agent, our highest confidence. 
The force and fitness of his intellect we have never found infe- 
rior to the grandeur of his character or the lustre of his fame. 
Conspicuous for the charities of private life, and alone doubt- 
ful of his public abilities, he has seldom left its sacred retreats 
without earning renown for himself and glory for his country. 
But the retreats of private life are no longer sacred. This be- 
loved citizen, this genuine republican; venerable for his age, il- 
lustrious for his services, and still more illustrious for his in- 
flexible patriotism, has seen not only his conduct distorted by 
slander, and his glory tarnished by calumny, but the partner 
of his bosom traduced and exposed for the sport of the idle 
and the malice of the infamous. That couch which has been 
so often forsaken, that others might sleep in safety and peace 
— that breast that has so often braved danger, that others 
might not even feel its alarms, which felt a stain on the honor 
of the country like a stab into its own vitals, has been invaded 
and cruelly outraged. That some of the members of the 
present administration of the Federal Government are account- 
able for the slander and persecution of Gen. Jackson and Ids 
wiie. is reluctantly, though solemnly, asserted. No moral dis- 
tinction can be drawn between the act of hiring a man to com- 
mit a crime andthatof rewarding him after he has committed 
it; and it is notorious that the prostituted miscreants wh< 1- 
vent and circulate these slanders, are the continued objects of 
ministerial favor, patronage and pay— hired with the 



434 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

of the very people whose willing gratitude and just admira- 
tion are the real causes of this defamation and rancor. This 
foul injustice not only aggravates the demerit of its procurers, 
but should endear to his country the hero who sustains it. As 
citizens of Tennessee, we feel it our especial duty to denounce 
it, and to proclaim our proud, our fervent, and our increased 
attachment to the candidate and the cause of the people. 



REPLY OF MR. BROWN, 

In Support of the Resolutions on a preceding page. 



Mr. Speaker : Until the last remarks fell from the gentle- 
man from Knox, I did not intend to have said anything in 
support of these resolutions. Even now I do not intend to 
discuss their merits. They contain, as I conceive, within them- 
selves, sufficient arguments for their adoption. An intimation, 
however, has been made, that they were introduced to catch 
the gentleman who last addressed this House. Why should 
I wish to catch him, or throw any impediments whatever in 
his way ? (Mr. W. here explained and Mr. B. proceeded.) 
My purposes in introducing these resolutions are infinitely 
above men ; they relate to great and fundamental principles in. 
the administration of this government. When they were in- 
troduced on yesterday, they were clearly and distinctly read in 
hearing of all the members of this House. They have been on 
your table the usual period for examination and reflection . 
yet gentlemen allege that they have been taken by surprise ! 
Taken by surprise as to the incidents attending the last Presi- 
dential election ? They have been known to the nation more 
than three years. Taken by surprise as to the alarming mea- 
sures of those now in power? They have been discussed over 
and over again, during two sessions of Congress. Taken by 
surprise as to the desperate and degrading means now em- 
ployed to secure another " reign of terror" over this republic? 
Those means have been used publicly, in the high places of 



43G MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

the earth, and it is strange, indeed, if they have escaped the 
most superficial observer. 

With some degree of emphasis it has been asked, why the 
Legislature of Tennessee should take up the subject? I an- 
swer, because Tennessee, like the other States of the Union, 
has suffered by the shameful incidents alluded to in these reso- 
lutions. I answer further, that the State of Tennessee is 
under peculiar obligations to enter her solemn protest against 
the combinations here complained of, because she first pre- 
sented Gen. Jackson to the nation as a candidate for the Presi- 
dency. It was not of his seeking ; it was done without the 
slightest procurement or interference on his part. Is not Ten- 
nessee, then, at least excusable, when she complains of the un- 
holy combinations which defeated him ; of the vile calumnies 
by which it is hoped that he can be again defeated ? It was, 
however, stated by the gentleman from Knox, that one mem- 
ber of the House of Representatives from Knox County, at 
the session when General Jackson was first nominated for the 
Presidency, had been heard to declare, that he was nominated 
only to make a diversion in favor of Mr. Adams to the preju- 
dice of Mr. Crawford. If it was intended that that was the mo- 
tive of the particular member alluded to, I have nothing to 
say. But if it were intended to make even the slightest inti- 
mation, that such was the motive of the General Assembly 
which then nominated General Jackson, I utterly deny it. I 
was then a member, and have a right to speak thus explicitly 
of events in which I was an actor. The Legislature of Ten- 
nessee, in submitting his name to the nation, was influenced 
by no motive of hostility either to Mr. Adams or Mr. Craw- 
ford, but by a sense of gratitude for his public services, and just 
admiration of those great and eminent qualifications which it 
believed fitted him for the office. Besides all this, it seems to 
me, that it is proper for this General Assembly thus to express 
its opinions, on another account. The reputation of that dis- 
tinguished individual is now public property. His fame is 
identified with the nation. Every public assembly, therefore, 
can well be justified in defending him against the assaults of 
defamation and malice. Several gentlemen have attempted 
to rouse the conscientious scruples of this House, by assuming 



IN SUPPORT OF RESOLUTIONS. 437 

the position, that all we do on this floor is under the sanction 
of an oath, and as the facts alluded to in these resolutions are 
not personally known or legally proved to them, they cannot 
vote for them. These gentlemen seem to know everything on 
one side of this subject, and nothing on the other. They 
know all the good actions of Mr. Clay — his eloquence in sup- 
port of the war — his negotiations at Ghent — his timely interfer- 
ence to save the nation from disunion on the Missouri question. 
But unfortunately, they know nothing of his hostility to Mr. 
Adams previous to the last election — nothing of his sudden 
reconciliation — nothing of his traversing the country at sea- 
sons of election and making electioneering speeches ! In the 
same way, they know all about Mr. Adams — of his writing 
against Thomas Paine — of his desertion of his old party in 
1N07 — of his hypocrisy from that period up to his election; all 
this and more they know of Mr. Adams when contrasted with Mr. 
Crawford. But, alas, when contrasted with General Jackson 
they pretend to know nothing at all about him ! They even 
talk of sending for witnesses, issuing subpoenas — as though 
nothing but Court-House evidence will induce them to say any 
thing against either Clay or Adams. Mr. Speaker, I am not 
disposed to be quite so technical. The facts alluded to, and 
collected in these resolutions, compose a part of the history of 
our country ; I am sorry to say, of the most disgraceful part of 
that history. In acting upon ihem I do not consider myself as 
swearing to their correctness ; but, sir, I do consider myself as 
swearing to my belief of their correctness, and to the conclu- 
sions drawn from them. In this spirit and with this understand- 
ing of my obligation, I introduced them, and still give them 
my cordial support. But, sir, I did not then, nor do I now, ex- 
pect some others to give their sanction. To have done so, 
would have argued the most profound ignorance of the politi- 
cal occurrences of the times. I will not, however, arraign the 
motives of those who may differ from me, but leave them to 
themselves, their country and their God. Whilst pursuing this 
course towards them, they ought to have shown equal mag- 
nanimity and charity to us. Why charge us with man-idolatry ? 
Why charge us with imitating the Hartford Convention? Is it 
worse in us to idolize Jackson now, than for them once to have 



438 "MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

idolized Crawford, and now to idolize Clay or Adams ? As to 
the Hartford Convention, what resemblance can be found in 
the proceedings of this House to the treasonable deliberations 
of that assembly? Is it treasonable, in their opinion, to de- 
nounce the measures of this mad and profligate administration? 
to protest against the alarming usurpations of the second 
Adams, as the old Republicans did against those of the first? 
Surely that eye must be evil that can discover the slightest re- 
semblance. 

Another whimsical suggestion was made by the gentleman 
from Knox — that in adopting these resolutions, we should be 
taking sides with Great Britain in the Colonial trade question ; 
and that they would seriously embarrass Mr. Gallatin in his 
negotiations at St. James'. This I consider a very foreign, a 
very far-fetched notion. Is there a word in those resolutions 
about the Colonial trade? It is true, that they contain a con- 
demnation of many of the measures of the administration. 
But if this be taking sides with England, if this be embarrass- 
ing to Mr. Gallatin, that mischief has been done long ago. 
The debates in Congress, the political essays of the day, the 
numerous and popular decisions made all over the nation, 
long ago told to England and to the world, to Mr. Gallatin and 
every Minister we have had abroad, that Mr. Adams' mea- 
sures were obnoxious to the American people. The same 
gentleman calls for proof of the dangerous tendency of the 
Panama mission; says that he was not in the country when 
that subject was discussed in Congress, and therefore would 
like to hear something about it on this floor. He even demands 
the treaty by which these "intrusive alliances" have been 
formed! Mr. Speaker, those resolutions only speak of in- 
tended or contemplated alliances ; for who did not know that 
no treaty had been made? Who did not know that our Min- 
isters and their Secretary, after groping about in the Southern 
Seas, spending for nought thirty or forty thousand dollars of 
the people's money, returned in disgrace to the United States, 
and reported that they could not even find the contemplated Con- 
gress. It is not now attempted to vindicate that mission on 
any of the grounds assumed by the President in either of his 
messages, or by any of his friends on the floor of Congress, 



IN SLTPORT OF RESOLUTIONS. 439 

but an effort has been made by the gentleman from Knox, to 
redeem the President and his Secretary from the contempt and 
ridicule to which it has exposed them, by conjectural surmises 
as to the designs of Bolivar. 

He supposed the Panama Congress to have been gotten up 
by that quandam Washington of the South, to aid him in an 
ambitious project of reducing the South American States to 
his imperial sceptre. That Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay, apprised 
by secret agents of this intention, instituted this mission, to 
warn those States of impending danger. Was anything like 
this suggested by Mr. Adams to the Senate, when sitting with 
closed doors, in profound secrecy and confidence ? No, sir? 
nothing like it. I therefore consider it only as an after- 
thought — the last hopeless apology for those in power — which 
will no more justify the measure, than the purposes at first 
avowed. If that Congress was to have been used as the mere 
instrument of Bolivar's elevation to the imperial crown, what 
business had we to be represented there ? If our ministers 
opposed such designs, we should of course be involved in the 
feuds and controversies of the respective parties, and if Bolivar 
succeeded, he would then be found at the head of all the con- 
federated States of South America, a bitter and implacable 
enemy to the United States. Will the folly of this mission be 
less, by alleging that it never was intended for our ministers to 
unite in their deliberations, but only to act as counsellors or 
advisers, and, in some sort, as spies on their proceedings ? 
Thirty or forty thousand dollars are then to be thrown away, 
only to give warning of designs, no doubt better understood by 
them than by our own government ! An imposing mission, 
fitted out in full national splendor, only to supply two idle 
danglers, or lobby members, to Bolivar's Congress ! 

Both of the gentlemen who oppose these resolutions, call 
themselves Republicans of the old Jefferson school. I admire 
their creed. It is drawn from a pure and unadulterated foun- 
tain of political knowledge, and I deny that any one principle 
taught in that school, is opposed to these resolutions. What 
are some of the leading measures of the Jeflcrsonian creed? 
" That the people is the source of all power and the fountain of 
all honor." That they have a right to exact obedience to their 



440 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

will from all their public functionaries. That a government 
instituted for their " peace, safety, and happiness;" should be 
administered in simplicity, economy and purity. Are not these 
principles regarded and inculcated in these resolutions? The 
first one proposes to give the election of President directly and 
conclusively to the people : The second condemns measures, 
which set their wishes at open defiance, and prostrate some of 
their dearest rights and privileges : The third proposes as a 
remedy for these evils, the election of an individual, distin- 
guished for his qualifications, his public services, and, above 
all, for his devoted attachment to the constitutional and inhe- 
rent rights of the people. If gentlemen were really what they 
profess to be, it seems to me, that they would not be found in 
the opposition to this measure. The great patriarch of repub- 
licanism sanctioned the principles when alive, and seemed to 
call, with a solemn voice, almost from the tomb, on his follow- 
ers, to rally around the man " who had filled the measure of 
his country's honor." The Republican party must unite, if it is 
ever restored to power. They must unite like a band of bro- 
thers, as in the dark period of '08, or the sceptre has departed 
from Judah forever. One gentleman was unkind enough, 
tauntingly to remind us, that we had been fired upon and scat- 
tered like birds. I know it. The nation knows and feels it. 
Why did he not tell you, that it was that very Kentucky sports- 
man, mentioned in these resolutions, who had fired upon and 
scattered the republican party ? Why will not that gentleman, 
seeing that " he is one of us," give his assistance in collecting 
the scattered forces of the republican phalanx, and retrieving 
the misfortune which the hypocrisy of the President in 1807, 
and the desertion of his Secretary in 1824, has brought on our 
party ? This is the great object of the friends of those resolu- 
tions. They wish to make an appeal to the great body of the 
people, to rise up and vindicate their own rights ; to teach the 
self-willed politicians of the day, that the}* shall not set at 
naught their instructions, with impunity. In short, to fight 
over, in the persons of Jackson and the younger Adams, the 
same battle that was fought between the elder Adams and Mr. 
Jefferson. The struggle is obliged to come on, and none should 
either expect or desire to be neutrals in it. It is not enough for 



IN SUPPORT OF RESOLUTIONS. 441 

gentlemen to cry out, we used to be for Crawford ! They must 
present stronger evidence than this that they are the disciples of 
Jefferson. Whom are they for now ? The question reminds me 
of a remark submitted by the gentleman from Bedford which 
I feel bound to notice : That many men in this State, not 
having merit of their own to rise upon, make ardent profes- 
sions of attachment to Jackson, which they do not feel. This 
is no doubt true of some of the friends not only of Jackson, but 
of Clay and Adams. But, sir, is this worse than for men, 
whilst canvassing before the people, to pretend to be for Jack- 
son, and thereby get into office, and then turn round and do 
him all the injury in their power? Or in other words, is it 
worse than to sail under the Jackson flag in the presence of 
the people, and so soon as they get out of their sight, display 
the broad pendant of Adams and Clay ? The gentleman 
disclaimed *' all allusions " to me in his remarks. I assure him 
with equal sincerity, that I make the same disclaimer as to 
him. 

Allow me now, sir, in conclusion, to observe that I did not 
rise to discuss the merits of these resolutions, nor the accom- 
panying remarks. They are left to vindicate themselves ; but 
in the course of the debate, some positions were assumed and 
suggestions made, which I felt it my duty thus briefly to notice. 



AN ADDRESS 
Of the Giles County Van Buren Committees, to the Voters of 



Tennessee. 



Fellow-Citizens: In pursuance of our appointment, and in 
discharge of the duties it enjoins, the undersigned beg leave 
to address you on the absorbing topic of the Presidential elec- 
tion. We are fully apprised of the great solicitude which the 
people of Tennessee now feel in that event. We remember 
well, for we participated with you in the feeling, how warmly 
you exulted on two former occasions, in the election of your 
most illustrious citizen to that high office. We remember, too, 
how eagerly the citizens of Tennessee caught at the very first 
suggestion, that they might furnish a successor in the person 
of Judge White, and know well how reluctantly they will part 
with the expectation of being able to do so, whilst a single ray 
of hope is left to brighten and illumine the prospect — all this 
was perfectly natural, and might well be expected of a gen- 
erous and confiding people, grateful for long continued and 
faithful public services, 

Experience has, however, long since taught us, that our first 
impressions are not always the best ones ; and that in a gov- 
ernment like ours, it is often dangerous to follow the sugges- 
tions of local partialities. When, in 1824, the ancient Com- 
monwealth of Virginia, with incautious attachment to her 
Southern favorite, cast her vote against Gen. Jackson, little did 
she think of the } r ears of bitterness and sorrow she would have 



AN ADDRESS, 443 

to pass through, in order to retrieve the error. When, in the 
game election, the State of Kentucky bestowed her suffrage 
on her own favorite and talented citizen, when there was no 
rational hope of his success, little did she suspect that she was 
bringing shame and defeat on the great republican cause, 
whose principles she had always sustained with such gallant 
devotion ! Believing, as we do, that if Tennessee errs in the 
coming election, it will be on the same ground ; and being so- 
lemnly convinced that such error must be followed by the same 
bitter consequences, we feel disposed to appeal to our fellow- 
citizens to review their first impressions, and to examine, with 
care, the various topics fairly involved in the approaching elec- 
tion. We propose to discuss those topics on the present occa- 
sion — temperately, but freely — to assume no fact which we do 
not believe to be true, and to draw no conclusions not fairly 
warranted by those facts. We propose to reason, not to abuse ; 
to argue, not to upbraid. We should despise to wear the lau- 
rels of invective, when temperate and fair argument could not 
achieve the victory. In Tennessee, at the present moment* 
there is peculiar difficulty in observing the proper courtesies of 
debate. In our public addresses, in our newspaper communi- 
cations, and even in our ordinary conversational arguments, 
there is evidently wanting that mutual concession and forbear- 
ance, which leave the social relations of life uninjured, how- 
ever vehement the debate, or however wide the difference of 
opinion. This defect does not arise from any irritability of 
temper, so much as from the great unanimity of sentiment that 
has heretofore prevailed amongst us, in relation to Presiden- 
tial elections. All, or nearly all, of us have been heretofore 
in favor of our present Chief Magistrate — of the man and his 
measures. Until now, we have undergone no discipline in the 
school of controversy, where, if we prove truant to its stern and 
rigid rules, we can expect nothing but friendships severed, and 
the kindest associations of life sundered forever. 

There are but two candidates who seem to occupy much of 
the attention of the people of Tennessee in the present elec- 
tion, and both claim to be members of the Republican party. 
The friends of Mr. Van Buren claim for him greater accepta- 
bility, and the earliest designation by that party as its candi- 



444 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

date, and deprecate a division in its ranks as dangerous to its 
success. The friends of Judge White object to the mode of 
his designation, and insist that all caucus nominations, being 
unauthorized by the laws of the land, or by the Constitution, 
are inconsistent with the freedom of elections, and dangerous 
to the liberties of the country. This we believe to be a fair 
statement of the original issue between the parties, whatever 
form more recent events may have given to the controversy. 
It will be a matter of surprise to the future historian, to find 
how much of this controversy was made to turn on the mode, or 
manner, by which their respective claims have been brought 
before the public by their friends. The right man ought always 
to be elected, however wrong his nomination. No imprudence 
of himself or friends, either in the time or manner of bringing 
him forward, ought ever to defeat the election of a candidate 
whose claims were superior to those of his competitor. But as 
to the mode of nomination, but little difference is perceivable. 
Both were nominated by a caucus; Judge White by a legisla- 
tive caucus, Mr, Van Buren by a national one. Both were 
equally self-constituted, and both therefore equally irresponsi- 
ble. The member* of the Alabama Legislature did not pre- 
tend to represent their constituents in their conditional nomi- 
nation of Judge Wnite ; and if they had, it would have been 
notorious to the whole world, that they were never delegated 
for that purpose. They could only presume to announce their 
own opinions, and what they supposed the opinions of the 
people of Alabama to be; and, therefore, their nomination did 
furnish some evidence of public sentiment in Alabama, in rela- 
tion to the Presidency. So would the declaration of the four 
or five hundred persons, whether rendered as delegates or as 
individuals, who assembled at Baltimore, furnish like pre- 
sumption of the state of public sentiment in the United States. 
Neither could nor was intended to be final nor binding on the 
people : both were intended only to be introductory and persua- 
sive; neither was valid, unless ultmately confirmed by the 
people. 

Whilst Judge White is compelled to date his designation, as 
a candidate, from the period of his Alabama nomination, all 
candid and well informed persons must admit that Mr. Van 



AN ADDRESS. 445 

Buren had been designated as the candidate intended tob e 
run by the Republican party, long before the Baltimore nomi- 
nation. The opposition saw it whilst he was a member of 
Gen. Jackson's cabinet. They saw it when they rejected his 
nomination as minister to England. They saw it in the over- 
whelming vote by which the party elected him to the second 
office of the government. It was so declared in the public 
journals of the day, and was perceivable from the debates on 
the floor of Congress. No one man in America was taken by 
surprise, for all men anticipated that he would be run by the 
party. On the other hand, no one can pretend that there was 
the slightest anticipation, either by friends or enemies, that 
Judge White would be brought forward. 

The proceedings by Alabama were like " a clap of thunder 
in a clear sky," with no previous glare of the lightning to an- 
nounce its approach. As to priority of designation, it is, there- 
fore, fair to say, Mr. Van Buren has the advantage of Judge 
White. As to the mode of presentation, if Judge White rely on 
primary assemblies of the people, Mr. Van Buren, before and 
since his nomination at Baltimore, can outnumber him in that 
way. If he rely on legislative nominations, Mr. Van Buren 
has an equal, if not a greater number in his favor. If he rely 
on the caucus of the " immortal eleven," Mr. Van Buren can 
cast off all the objectionable votes given in the Baltimore Con- 
vention, and still hold up that nomination, all be-ruckered, as it 
may be, as an hundred fold better than that of Bell, Crockett 
& Co. We believe the plain truth of this part of the subject 
is, that whilst some common enemy of the party was expected to 
take the field against Mr. Van Buren, the whole party, to a man, 
Judge White and all his friends, were resolved to stand undi- 
vided and unflinching in his favor. Then no one of the Repub- 
lican party denied to Mr. Van Buren the possession of abilities 
of a very high order. Who, then, complained of his tergiversa- 
tions and inconsistencies as a politician ? Who branded him 
then, with the odious epithet of Abolitionist, alhougth every 
one knew what his course had been on the Missouri question ? 
W r ho of all his associates in politics, (Judge White amongst the 
rest.) did not acknowledge with gratitude, the unwavering sup- 
port given by him and his friends, to Gen. Jackson's adminis- 



446 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

tration — not in the days of sunshine and prosperity, but in the 
darkest and most gloomy period of its existence. In that 
celebrated panic session, when all the elements of opposition, 
lashed into fury by three of the most eloquent and talented men 
in America, if not in the world, seemed ready to sweep away 
Jackson and the Republican party, of which he was the head 
and representative. During that session, in our opinion the 
most critical ever witnessed in the history of this country, all 
of us must remember how firm and undaunted Mr. Van Bur eh 
stood by the side of the President, " resolved to sink or swim, 
to live or die," with the man who had filled the measure of his 
country's honor. It was during that session when Virginia, 
that Old Dominion, the mother of so many Presidents, deluded 
for a moment, turned coldly away from him — Pennsylvania, 
too, that key-stone of the arch — the second if not the first to 
bring him forward for the Presidency, terrified by the threats of 
the United States Bank, began to tremble and give him up. If 
at that critical moment, the Empire State had not stood by him 
and sustained him, with a constancy and firmness that aston- 
ished and delighted every republican bosom at the time, all 
must have been lost — Jackson and his party and his measures 
must all have perished in one common grave. Now, all this 
constancy and devotion presented Mr. Van Buren as a con- 
spicuous and shining object before the eyes of the Jackson 
party, no respectable portion of which ever dreamed of not 
supporting him against an opposition candidate. 

Such was the unanimity of the Republican party in his favor, 
that the distinguished leaders of the opposition, whose claims 
had always been looked to for the same office, stood for a long 
time baffled and discomfitted in their hopes of a successful 
competition. In this state of irresolution among the op- 
position, it began to be suspected by some, that probably no 
candidate at all would be brought out by them, and in that 
event, there was no necessity for all this unanimity in favor of 
Mr. Van Buren. Here was the starting point of all Judge 
White's aspirations. It was here, on the express supposition 
that no opposition candidate teas likely to be presented, that the 
friends of Judge White began to suggest that he was well 
qualified for the office of Chief Magistrate. The suggestion 



AN ADDRESS. 447 



was followed up by some popular meetings in different coun- 
ties of this State, and finally ended in the conditional nomina- 
tion by the Alabama Legislature, and the annunciation by the 
eleven members of Congress, that the Judge would be a 
candidate. Now, we appeal to the recollection of every one, 
whether in all those popular assemblies it was not well under- 
stood, that his pretensions were urged mainly on the improba- 
bility of an opposition candidate. The face of the Alabama 
proceedings shows that fact in that State, and we appeal to 
the documents published by the eleven members of Congress 
to show, that these very members themselves proceeded in the 
same idea, and themselves anticipated the probability of a 
mistake on that point, and declare, that in such an event they 
owe it to consistency and to the safety of the party with which 
they had always acted, not to persist in urging Judge White's 
pretensions. From the first moment of his being mentioned 
as a candidate, many of the wise and experienced members of 
the Republican party protested against it as hazardous and 
impolitic ; they depicted the danger of disunion, and insisted 
that the fact of having started two candidates would invite 
an opposition candidate to the field. Such, however, were the 
confident predictions to the contrary in Tennessee, that Judge 
White was warmly taken up and pressed through many public 
meetings with almost undivided enthusiasm. In the mean- 
time the opposition, with a vigilance that never slumbers, and 
a sagacity that never fails to improve every opportunity, lay 
back, concealing their own purposes, whilst the whole band of 
them, Nullifiers, Bankmen, Federalists and all, united in 
chanting the praises of Judge White, until his friends were 
truly astonished at his sudden apparent strength and popularity. 
Not looking beyond the surface and appearance of things, nor 
suspecting any sinister designs, Judge White, in an unlucky 
moment — unlucky for his own fame and unlucky for the interest 
and safety of the Republican party — gave his assent, and sur- 
rendered his name as a candidate for the Presidency. 

The sagacious of all parties knew well how to account for 
this sudden inflation of popularity, whilst others, either less 
observant or blinded by local or personal attachments, really 

entertained the opinion, from the unexpected developments in 
30 



448 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

his favor, that he was highly acceptable to the Republican 
party, and even more so than Mr. Van Buren. Until now no 
party caucus or conventional designation had been concluded 
on in favor of Mr. Van Buren. Until now one continued and 
unbroken line of circumstances had marked him out as the 
favored and intended candidate of the party. But when all 
this began to be questioned, and some of the party, particularly 
in Tennessee, began to claim for Judge White an equal, if not 
a greater acceptability for the party, then, and not till then, 
was it deemed generally to be either necessary or proper, 
(though some might have proposed it before,) to hold any party 
consultation on the subject. It was about the time to which 
we allude, that General Jackson thought proper to advise such 
a consultation. Of that advice — of the time and manner of 
giving it — and of the foul and crying injustice which has been 
attempted to be inflicted on him for having given it, we intend 
hereafter to speak. We advert to it now, only to give date to 
the historical narrative, which we are attempting to furnish. 
Against this party consultation, the friends of Judge White 
protested with perpetual and vehement outcry. An adequate 
motive for doing so, may be found in the fact, that in a consul- 
tation to determine which of two party candidates should be 
run, none but the sincere and known friends of the party 
would be admitted. Now, it would be easy to foresee what the 
fate of Judge White's pretensions would be in any consultation 
in which the voice of the Nullifiers, Bankmen, and Federalists 
was not to be heard. We venture the assertion, that., exclude the 
enemies of this administration from having a voice in the matter, 
and Judge White cannot now and never could have gotten a 
nomination by a majority of its friends in any State of the 
Union — Tennessee only excepted. That he has many valu- 
able and intelligent supporters here and elscu here, that have 
always and still adhere to the administration, is most true, but 
that they constitute anything like a creditable approximation 
toward a majority in any State in the Union, with the excep- 
tion aforesaid, is utterly denied. Hence the evident policy of 
rejecting all general consultations with the party — of going 
into no arrangement which did not let in and receive such of 
his new triads as did not belong to the ranks of the adminis- 



AN ADDRESS, 449 

tration. This policy was adopted, has been persisted in, and 
will never be departed from by Judge White and his friends* 
He and they know that, if left to the determination of the 
Jackson or Republican party, to determine either by State 
nominations or by a National Convention, which shall be run 
as their candidate, Judge White has not now, nor ever had, the 
least chance of being selected for the purpose. It is, therefore, 
evident that Judge White, though he may be in his own person 
a Republican, and we have always so esteemed him, yet we 
boldly aver that he is not the candidate of the Republican 
party, but is, on the contrary, running directly against the 
wishes of that part} 7 , and, of course, is relying on the aid of its 
enemies for his election. We have always admitted that Ten- 
nessee was to be excepted out of this view of the subject. She 
from the first, and most probably up to the present moment, is 
in favor of Judge White, and yet Tennessee is a Republican 
State. To Judge White she is and long has been greatly at- 
tached. To the Republican party, too, she has been devoted 
ever since she had an existence. The principles of that party 
as advocated by Jefferson, was the glory of her youth, and the 
same principles as carried out and practiced by Jackson, have 
become the very life-blood of her existence ! We speak of a 
State in which we have long resided, and of a people whom we 
have long known, when we say that, although Tennessee maj' 
linger awhile in reluctant surrender of one of her favorite citi- 
zens, yet when the final struggle shall come on, she will let go 
her hold upon ??ien, and cling to her principles, with a death 
grasp that will make her and them one and indivisible forever! 
True, a few months may disclose the refutation of a now 
pleasing prophecy ; still we cannot give up the hope, that when 
Tennessee shall look out beyond her borders — when she shall 
cast her eyes over the combined armies of the opposition — 
when she shall see in that army the legions of Nullification, 
Federalism, the mercenary Hessians of the Bank, and the 
resuscitated forces of the American System, all in close but 
unnatural array against the Republican party, she will not, she 
cannot, draw the sword nor lift the battle-axe in such unholy 
combination against herself, her principles, and her honor! 
Those desperate leaders, who would plant the White banner 



450 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

beside the black cockade of Federalism, and who would mingle 
its emblematic folds with the single starred colors of Nullifica- 
tion, will then find that the people of Tennessee cannot be 
induced to follow that standard into such strange and abomi- 
nable associations. 

If it be inquired, what are those principles to which Tennes- 
see is likely to adhere with so much unyielding tenacity, we 
answer that they are the principles of the Republican party. 
Those principles which have given it its distinctive character 
for nearly forty years, through a succession of administrations 
from 1801, unbroken, save only in that of the younger Adams, 
for that whole period; principles which the wisest and best of 
our statesmen have ever deemed of the highest importance to 
the welfare and prosperity of the country. To enumerate 
them here, would imply too great a want of information on the 
part of those whom we address, and to attempt to vindicate 
their correctness, would seem like superadding to the labors of 
Madison and Jefferson, and a long list of other patriots, whose 
names are embalmed in the most cherished remembrance of 
their countrymen. Granting, however, the importance and 
correctness of these principles, it is sometimes asked, how are 
they endangered in the present election ? We answer, by the 
division of the party which always sustained them. Since the 
great civil revolution of 1801, that party has never been beaten 
but once, and that was effected only by division. In 1824, the 
Republican party presented three competing candidates for the 
Presidency, in the persons of Mr. Crawford, Mr. Clay, and 
General Jackson, whilst the Federal party presented but one, 
in the person of Mr. Adams. True, Mr. Adams was regarded 
at the time, by many, as a Republican, also, but the entire 
unanimity with which the whole Federal party was supporting 
him, soon dissipated all ideas of that kind, and the subsequent 
events of his administration clearly showed, that he was em- 
phatically the candidate of the Federal party. No concert of 
action — no harmony of feeling — no adjustment of pretensions 
took place between the three Republican candidates, and the 
consequence was, that the Federal one was elected. The Re- 
publicans felt the shock from one end of the continent to the 
other. Virginia deplored that momentary infatuation, that 



AN ADDRESS. 451 

made her cling to her Southern favorite, long after she had 
despaired of his success. Other States deeply lamented the 
same error, and instantly resolved that, as division had lost the 
sceptre, so harmony and concert of action should regain it. 
Accordingly, in the next election, the Republican party concen- 
trated its whole strength upon General Jackson, and drove the 
Hying and broken columns of Federalism before it in every 
direction. Now, when Mr. Van Buren and Judge White were 
first proclaimed as candidates, both claiming to be Republi- 
cans, was there no propriety in warning the party not to be 
divided? Was there nothing in the experience of the past 
which might induce the wise and prudent to advise a consulta- 
tion amongst friends, in order to bring about an adjustment of 
their pretensions ? The ranks of the Federal party, always 
strong in talents of the highest order, had lately been rein- 
forced by the Nullifiers, whose leader possessed more lofty 
genius and consummate tact than any other man probably in 
America, and whose subalterns, taking them rank and file, 
constituted the very flower and chivalry of southern talent. 
Add to these the acquisition of Mr. Clay, the first orator of the 
age, with a strong influence of western friends, who had long 
paid homage to his eloquence, and you present the Federal 
party, at the close of the Panic session, formidable in numbers, 
powerful in talent, and, through the United States Bank, in- 
exhaustible in resources. In the face of an enemy so huge 
and vast, what lover of his country can lay his hand on his 
heart and conscientiously blame General Jackson for warning 
his countrymen against the danger of disunion in the Repub- 
lican party ? He was the head of that party — he was its 
representative, and, like a faithful sentinel, gave the alarm ! 
For this, he has been denounced by a vile herd of editors as a 
Dictator and Tyrant, and by his own representative in Congress 
as an Elective Monarch ! 

Let us now inquire whether all these apprehensions of dan- 
ger from division have not been confirmed by subsequent 
events. We affirm, that the number, the position of the candi- 
dates, and the avowed and open and frequent declarations of 
their friends, place the Republican party, even now, in imminent 
hazard and danger. Should Judge White succeed in carrying 



452 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

off any respectable portion of the party, and that portion should 
be disposed to throw itself into the common stock with Mr. Web- 
ster and General Harrison, the result becomes intensely dan- 
gerous. The two last have always stood ready for amalgama- 
tion at any moment. Identity of Federal sentiments produces 
a mutual sympathy, which would render such amalgamation 
both easy and natural. As to Judge White, it is now clearly 
proved by the per/niltcd amalgamation of the Harrison and 
White ticket in Virginia, that however coyly he would have 
submitted to the caresses of the opposition at first, he is now 
considered by his friends as ready to yield himself up, soul and 
body, to the prostituted embraces of all sorts of associations, in 
order to defeat the election of Mr. Van Buren. No one of the 
candidates, Mr. Webster, General Harrison, or Judge White, 
ever expected, or now expects, to be elected by the people. 
Their only reliance is on the House of Representatives. If 
Judge White were to receive every vote, in every State in the 
Union where he has a ticket running, he could not be elected. 
It is evident, therefore, and his friends do not deny it, that he is 
running, not for an election by the people, but by the House. 
Now, it has long been a favorite principle of the Republican 
party, never to let such an election go before Congress. The 
contest between Mr. Jefferson and Burr, and the later defeat of 
Gen. Jackson before that body, had clearly shown the danger 
of sending it there. Not the least doubt can exist, that if 
Judge White were not now a candidate, Mr. Van Buren would 
be elected by the College of Electors. Here, then, is one of 
the bitter fruits of this division of the party. It is thereby 
compelled to give up an election by the People, and, forced by 
Judge White, to receive a President, whoever he may be, from 
the foul and filthy combinations of the House of Representa- 
tives. The Republican party, at this very moment, is deeply 
regretting the sacrifice of this very principle in her creed, and 
it adds not a little to her affliction, that the sacrifice is induced 
by one of her own formerly cherished and honored members ! 
Although even there she expects that Mr. Van Buren will proba- 
bly be elected, yet she feels confident that the country cannot 
accept him from the hands of the House, with the same confi- 
dent assurance of untarnished purity as if he had never gone 
there. 



AX ADDRESS. 153 

We desire the people of Tennessee to pause and look this 
one fact steadily in the face, that, if it were not for the dn i 
made by Judge White, Mr. Van Buren would certainly be 
elected by the people over Gen. Harrison and Mr. Webster ; 
that, in consequence of this division, all the attempts at an 
election next fall, will probably turn out a mere idle formality, 
an empty show — bringing no results except to show the people 
how impotent they are, and how easily Judge White, with the 
co-operation of Mr. Webster and Gen. Harrison, has divisted 
them of Jheir rights, and transferred them to the trained and 
hackneyed politicians of Congress. All this is now known to 
and admitted by Judge White and his friends, and yet he shows 
no disposition to heal the breach he has made, by withdrawing 
from the contest as Judge M'Lead did, and thereby restore to 
the people their just authority and influence in the election. 
But if Judge White will persist in this co-operation with the 
two Federal candidates, to throw the election into the House 
of Representatives, where no sound-hearted Democrat ever 
desired to see it, it becomes you solemnly to consider whether 
you will continue to adhere to him under such circumstances. 
In sustaining him thus far, j^ou have done all that State pride 
or personal attachment required at your hands. To go for him 
and with him further, is to sacrifice one of the eldest and best 
established principles of the Republican party. Those who 
called him out, did not require ox expect you to go further, 
They themselves have declared that he ought to be dropped, 
whenever the safety of the party, or its principles, would be 
endangered by continuing to run him. Under this pledge and 
assurance given by " the eleven," every man in the State has 
a right now, before further mischief is done, to require and de- 
mand it of them to withdraw Judge White from this combina- 
tion with the Federal candidates. Instead, however, of with- 
drawing him, and so redeeming their solemn pledges, the most 
distinguished one of them is now traversing the State, in order 
to convince you that it is well enough for this party to be 
divided — that it has become corrupt — that its head and leader 
has made this Republic an Elective Monarch)', and it is, there- 
fore, high time to effect its overthrow and destruction ! 

This bold charge of corruption against the administration of 



454 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

Andrew Jackson, lias not even the merit of novelty to sustain 
it. It is the old charge made by David Crockett at the close of 
nearly every session of Congress in which he served, as an 
excuse for having - voted with and sustained the opposition. 
But, in our opinion, it has as little truth as novelty. General 
Jackson has changed ! Why, then, is it that every Bank man, 
and every Federalist, and every Nullifier, and every American 
System man in America, is still ag-ainst him as much as ever ? 
Can it be possible that Andrew Jackson can have become false 
to his party, false to his principles, and false to his country, 
and yet not have conciliated a single one of the various parties 
and interests leagued against him ? No, fellow-citizens, the 
charge is false, and is only made to an insulted community, in 
order to cover the disgrace of their own defection. 

We know the earnestness with which these modem scceders 
from the Republican ranks, insist on the total obliteration of all 
party distinction ; their arguments on this point are based on 
the insulting idea, that there was nothing important or sincere 
in the mighty struggle which has been going on for nearly 
half a century between the two great political parties of this 
country. Nearly every old Federal doctrine has been revived, 
and others, more modern, but not less dangerous, have been 
contended for, during the last seven years of Jackson's admin- 
istration. But the people of Tennessee have, however, united 
with their Republican brethren of other States, in sustaining 
the venerable representative of the Republican party in his 
noble resistance against all these abominable heresies. How 
is it then, that at the close of his administration, when all these 
antagonist principles stand out in open array, proudly boast- 
ing that they will prevail and triumph against his successor, 
how is it we ask, that these "no party" leaders can call upon 
you, at such a crisis, to abolish all party distinctions, to dis- 
miss all your forces, to disband the vetern legions of Demo- 
cracy and tamely surrender yourselves, without even terms of 
capitulation, into the hands of your enemies! We warn you 
not to confide in such advisers. They proclaim "peace among 
parties," when they know there can be no honorable peace. 
They exhort you to disband and unarm, only that you may be 
an easy victim to Federal domination and misrule. They give 



AX ADDRESS. 455 

you insidious counsel, that would betray you into the hands of 
an enemy, who would delight to carry you in chains to the foot 
of the Bank, or to lead you, in triumphant mockery, through 
the camps of Nullification and Federalism, the degraded cap- 
tives of your own credulity and folly. These enemies, against 
whose machinations we warn you, know well that General 
Jackson has not changed, and that Martin Van Buren stands 
bound, by repeated and public pledges, to carry out the mea- 
sures and principles of his administration. These pledges they 
know he will redeem, and in that redemption they see their 
own discomfiture and ruin. On the other hand, they have seen 
repeated symptoms not to say proofs of Judge White's defection 
from Gen. Jackson and his administration, which encourage 
them in the belief, that in him they would not find so stern and 
inflexible an opponent as in Mr. Van Buren. Nay, more, the 
recent course of Judge White has excited high expectations, 
that from the obligations they may lay him under by their sup- 
port, and from the hatred now excited between him and Gen. 
Jackson, they may presently claim him as common property of 
all their different factions — obedient to their will and subject 
t;> their direction. We would not have you to understand that 
Ave believe all these degraded expectations would ever be re- 
alized — for although we are opposed to his election, we cannot 
believe that he would ever become such a puppet in the hands 
of any set of wire-workers whatsoever. Still we do believe, 
that when he shall know and feel that he is indebted to these 
factions for his elevation, and without their continued aid he 
could not sustain himself in his new office, that the fear of dis- 
grace, added to a sense of obligation, would exert a most un- 
happy influence over him. To suppose otherwise, is at open 
war with the known principles of human nature, and won Id 
exalt Judge White too high above the ordinary standard of 
human excellence. 

We now wish to call your attention to the President's dicta- 
tion. This is the watch-word of the White party in Tennessee. 
It is found in every conversation, and in every written essay, 
on the Presidential election. It is now used by the managers 
of the Tennessee press, to rouse the prejudices of a brave and 
jealous people, ever ready to resent the slightest encroachments 



456 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

on their rights and privileges. Propose to such a people to 
appoint over them a Roman Dictator, clothed with absolute 
authority, and you rouse into action every indignant feeling of 
their nature. Or tell such a people, that some great man of 
the nation has issued his commands or has sent forth his orders 
exacting obedience to his mandates, and you till them at once 
with the deepest indignation. All this is well known to the 
managers aforesaid, and hence it is, that the cry of dictation 
has been raised, and vociferated from one end of the State to 
the other, against our heretofore respected and venerated 
Chief Magistrate. These adroit managers hope to excite the 
people to such a height of jealous indignation, as to draw off 
their attention from the investigation of the truth of the charges 
which they have preferred against the President, and thus, 
amidst a storm of calumny and detraction, silence the admo- 
nitions of one of the best and purest patriots that ever lived. 
If the people of Tennessee are jealous of encroachments on 
their rights, they are equally intelligent to detect the shallow 
artifices by which it is attempted to divert the noble and hon- 
orable frailties of their nature to the subserviency of party 
purposes. 

We invite them, therefore, to suspend any momentary indig- 
nation into which the frequency and boldness of these charges 
may have thrown them, and temperately inquire whether it be 
true, that General Jackson is now attempting, or has ever at- 
tempted, to play the dictator over you. " To dictate," means 
to declare or deliver to another with authority. " Dictation " is 
the act of so declaring and delivering with authority, and is 
very nearly the same in its import as the word command. Ad- 
vice, counsel, admonition, are all totally distinct from dictation. 
The advice of a friend we may disapprove, the counsel of a 
parent we may reject, the admonition of the wise and great we 
may disregard ; still we never speak of these as dictators, or as 
persons who intend or desire to enfore obedienceto their sugges- 
tions. We continue to honor and respect them for their good 
intentions and kind feelings, but never look upon them as ene- 
mies on whom we should heap epithets of reproach and con- 
demnation. 

A'ow, in the light of these definitions, we invite the people 



AX ADDRESS. 457 

of Tennessee to go back in regular review to the various acta 
charged against Gen. Jackson as amounting to dictation. The 
first allegation against him, is the celebrated letter to the 
Rev. Mr. James Gwin. This letter was written about the time 
when the greatest apprehensions existed of danger to the Re- 
publican cause by division in its ranks. The wise and experi- 
enced and virtuous of the Republican party deprecated the 
idea of the Republicans starting two candidates for the Presi- 
dency. They greatly feared that, by doing so, the sceptre 
would depart from their hands and be given over to the com- 
mon enemies of their principles, the Nullifiers, Bankmen and 
Federalists. Up to this period, General Jackson had never 
interfered. He had never spoken one solitary word against 
Judge White, as far as the public was apprised. But one, if 
not more, of the Nashville papers commenced a series of pub- 
lications, in which they attempted to prove that Gen. Jackson 
was in favor of Judge White; that from their early associations 
and agreement of opinions, he must of necessity be so. After 
urging this view of the subjeet, they supposed the contrary, 
and then argued, in a very reprehensible style, that the people 
of Tennessee would never submit to the dictation of General 
Jackson. Let it be remembered, that this charge of dictation 
was made before General Jackson had said one single word on 
the subject, and was predicated on the bare supposition that he 
might not be in favor of Judge White. So soon as these arti- 
cles met the eye of the President, he was satisfied that he ought 
to interpose and prevent the impression that he was in favor 
of either of the candidates, or rather, that he was not more in 
favor of one than the other. That he ought to interpose to 
prevent the impression that he was in favor of dividing the 
party which had so gallantly supported him, by bringing for- 
ward two candidates, to the evident danger of defeating both 
of them. With this view he wrote the Gwin letter. Kow, the 
question is, was that a letter of dictation? We deny that it 
was; the friends of Judge White assert that it was. This, 
then, is the issue. Let it be determined by the letter itself. 
We suppose it to be in the recollection of the reader, and chal- 
lenge the pointing out of a single clause that looks like dicta- 
tion, lie complains of the course pursued by those papers, 



458 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

and denies that they have any authority for saying that he was 
for or against cither of them. It then avows, that he is in 
favor of that one, whoever it might be, who could concentrate 
on himself the greatest strength of the Republican party ; and 
for the purpose of ascertaining who that was, he recommended 
a consultation through the instrumentality of a Convention, 
whose representatives should come, in the much abused and 
often ridiculed expression, " fresh from the people." We write 
from recollection of the contents of that letter, and aver that 
no part or clause of it can be made out stronger than the mere 
advice and counsel of General Jackson to his political friends, 
and not a, dictation of his will and pleasure, to deprive them of 
their just rights of voting as they pleased. Gen. Jackson, as 
the head and representative of the Republican party, may well 
be supposed to entertain the liveliest solicitude for its success 
and preservation. Believing that he saw danger to it by divi- 
sion, and that the course pursued by these Nashville newspapers 
was making him instrumental in creating and increasing that 
danger, he wrote the letter of counsel or advice to one of his old 
neighbors and fellow-soldiers in his wars. Now, for doing this 
he has been denounced from that day to this, by all the presses 
and warm advocates of Judge White, as a dictator ! Is it dic- 
tation to give one's advice ? If so, our friends, our parents, who 
warn us against impending dangers, are our enemies, and, in- 
stead of our thanks, ought to receive our maledictions. True, 
General Jackson might be accused of giving bad advice, or 
even of being intrusive in giving it at all, but that is not the 
question. It is not whether he gave good or bad advice, or 
gave it with good or bad manners, but whether Gen. Jackson 
has dictated to the people of Tennessee — whether he committed 
encroachments on the rights and privileges of the people when 
they are approaching the ballot-box ? We might refer to the 
history of his whole life for a refutation of such a charge. He 
who has devoted himself so long to the service of his country, 
who has so often risked his life and bared his bosom in defence 
of the peoples' rights, could hardly desire now to turn round, 
and, with unhallowed violence, take them away! It is impos- 
sible that it can be so. General Jackson, whatever may be his 
anxiety about the next election, we feel confident, would not 



AN ADDRESS, 459 

deprive the poorest and the most ragged man in the State, of 
the right of voting as he pleased, to secure the election of any 
man on earth! We still return to the Gwin letter. We hold 
the calumniators who preferred the charge of dictation, and 
the designing who have so often repeated it, to that very docu- 
ment, and demand to know why they have attempted to excite 
the people of Tennessee to distrust and disaffection against 
the best friend they ever had, on such false and baseless a 
foundation. Why have they tortured his correspondence into 
so strange and unnatural a meaning? Why have they, when 
he was far distant, busily engaged in administering the gov- 
ernment, in precise accordance with the wishes of the people, 
taken the advantage of him, and loaded him with epithets 
which he never deserved, and perverted a letter, written in the 
spirit of paternal counsel, into one of tyrannical diction. When the 
excitement of thi< election is over, the people of Tennessee, 
ever true to him who was ever true to them, will turn and de- 
mand a terrible settlement of accounts with all those who have 
thus traduced him and endeavored to impose upon them. 

We will now consider the Gwin letter as one of advice and 
counsel, and see if the Pesident be justly blameable for having 
WTitten it. 

In the first place, these newspaper editors at A T ashville, had 
no right to appropriate Gen. Jackson's name to Judge White, 
or any other candidate. They had no right to make the public- 
believe that Gen. Jackson was in favor of running two candi- 
dates on the Republican ticket. Such an impression was false 
in fact, and placed Gen. Jackson in a very inconsistent attitude 
before the nation. These editors knew this, but supposed 
that as Gen. Jackson was a great way off, and was filling the 
highest office of the government, that either he would not see 
them, or seeing, would not reply to their publications, ventured 
to make the false impression in Tennessee, that Gen. Jackson 
was in favor of running Judge White. It was, in short, an in- 
solent attempt to dictate to Gen. Jackson, much stronger than 
any he has made to dictate to the people of Tennessee. Gen. 
Jackson had, therefore, a clear right to deny the assertions and 
false statements, as he regarded them, of these editors. Win a 
doing so, it was very natural and proper for him to state for 



400 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

himself what his true position on the subject really was. What 
was that position ? That he was in favor of whatever candi- 
date was most acceptible to the party which had supported 
him and his measures. If that one proved to be Hugh L. 
White, then he was for him ; if it proved to be Mr. Van Buren 
then he was for him ; his great object being, not to divide and 
thereby endanger the Republican cause, for which he had been 
toiling and laboring for so many years. 

But in writing that letter, he is said to have departed from 
the example of Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson has set us no 
example under similar circumstances. When Mr. Madison 
was about to be brought forward, Mr. Monroe was also spoken 
of — they were both equally his neighbors and personal 
friends — they were both undoubted Republicans. There could, 
therefore, be no great principles involved — both would ad- 
minister the government on principles perfectly satisfactory 
to Mr. Jefferson — hence he might well determine to pre- 
serve a strict neutrality. But who can believe that if Mr. 
Jefferson had seen the Republican cause in iminent danger; 
who can believe that if he had heard the war-dogs of Federal- 
ism howling around the still and quiet camps of the Republi- 
cans, that he would not instantly have raised the alarm ? Every 
village and homestead in the nation would have heard his ap- 
peal, and, like Jackson, he would have exhorted his country- 
men to union and harmony of action! 

Another act has been complained of as an unwarrantable 
interference with the elective franchise. We mean the frank- 
ing of the Globe, a newspaper printed at the city of Washing- 
ton, to the members of the last Legislature cf Tennessee. These 
newspapers contained the speeches of Mr. Benton on his cele- 
brated "Expunging Resolutions." The practice of franking (or 
sending free of postage) is allowed to the President, and other 
officers of government, and to members of Congress, by the 
laws of the land. It applies to letters, newspapers, and other 
documents, without restriction as to what they may contain.. 
Mr. Benton's resolutions related to a point in Gen. Jackson's 
public conduct, of the greatest delicacy to himself now, and of 
the highest importance to his future fame. The most factious 
and corrupt Senate that ever satin America, had branded him 



AN ADDRESS. 401 

on its journals as a violator of the Constitution of his country. 
He had protested against this act of unjust condemnation, but 
that protest had been insultingly disallowed. Having no other 
alternative left for his vindication, he laid that protest before 
the people, and appealed to them, as the true source of power 
and final arbiter of all disputes Jbetween their public agents. 
Was it not, therefore, his right to lay before the representa- 
tives of the people, all public speeches and documents calcu- 
lated to explain and vindicate his conduct in relation to the 
removal of the public deposites ? He stood unjustly condemned 
by the Senate — he was earnestly desiring that that sentence 
should be reversed, by instructions given by the State Legis- 
latures to their Senators in Congress. He was, therefore, per- 
fectly justifiable in sending out, under his frank, every speech 
or document calculated to shed light on his conduct. The right 
of defence you allow to your worst offenders; why then shall 
it not be given to one of the greatest benefactors of the age ? 
But, it is said that such documents and speeches were calculated 
to injure Judge White in the same proportion as they might 
benefit Gen. Jackson. Let this be granted, and then we de- 
mand to know why Gen. Jackson shall be denied the benefit of 
his appeal to the people, because Judge White was opposing 
that appeal, and was unwilling to have this foul reproach ex- 
punged from the journals, where it ought never to have been 
placed. Gen. Jackson had made that appeal, and Mr. Benton 
had notified the country that he would never cease his efforts 
to wipe out the stigma, long before Judge White became a can- 
didate for the Presidency, or any of his friends dreamed that 
such high destiny awaited him. If he chose afterward to op- 
pose that appeal, and to join in with the defamers of the Presi- 
dent in holding the unjust stigma to the record, ought he to 
expect Gen. Jackson to give over his exertions and to abandon 
his defence, only because it brought into question the cause and 
conduct of Judge White? 

W^e do not intend to discuss the expunging question, we mean 
only to vindicate the President from the charge of intending 
to injure Judge White, by abusing his franking privileges. He 
was strictly engaged in his own defence, in the vindication of his 
own character, and had set out and determined on that vindi- 



462 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

cation long before Judge White was interested in the subject. 
Another, and the last charge we shall notice, is that which 
relates to the conduct of the President during his late visit to 
Tennessee. Daring that visit he has been abused and misre- 
presented in the most wanton and shameful manner. He de- 
clared that private business of importance had brought him home 
to Tennessee — to that home which in his absence had been con- 
sumed by the devouring flames — to that home, where laid in- 
terred his once loved and much calumniated companion — to 
that home, where his own grave had been opened, with strict 
injunction that no matter in what land he might breathe his 
last, that here, beneath the sod of Tennessee, so often protected 
by his valor, and identified with him in so many of the illustrious 
and glorious achievements of his life, his mortal remains should 
be deposited. But to such a home, so endeared, and to such a 
State, so honored, he is not permitted to come without his mo- 
tives and purposes being slandered and misrepresented ! We 
cannot take time to enumerate all that has been said. Suffice 
it to say, that it is charged upon him, in passing through some 
of the congressional districts, he spoke unfavorably of their 
representatives in Congress. We have no doubt that he did, 
and have as little doubt that he ought to have done so. Shall 
members of Congress, on the floor of debate, or amongst their 
constituents denounce Andrew Jackson as a tyrant and dicta- 
tor — as an elective monarch and a conspirator against public 
libertv, and then complain that Andrew Jackson has the spirit 
and the nerve to fling back the tide of reproach upon them- 
selves? No man at all acquainted with his character ever ex- 
pected the contrary. But it is said that on certain occasions he 
has denounced Judge White ! And has not Judge White as 
often denounced Gen. Jackson? If the latter ever said of the 
former, that he was leagued with the Federalists, has not Judge 
W T hite insinuated that Jackson was a wolf in sheep's clothing 
and a conspirator against the liberty of the people? We do 
not pretend to adjust the account nor strike the balance on the 
score of hard words, between these distinguished individuals, for 
wc have not the information enabling us to be precise as to what 
they have said, or which resorted first to the use of opprobrious 
epithets. But we assure you, fellow-citizens, from what we have 



AN ADDRESS. 403 

heard and from what we know of the equally irascible temper of 
both, that honors are very likely to be easy on that score. 

We submit no apology to the community, for this frequency 
of reference to Gen. Jackson — to his principles and measures, 
and to the gross and frequent injustice that has been done to 
him by the various factions now composing the opposition to 
his administration. The last victory of Democracy was 
achieved in his person, and the Republican party stood united 
and concentrated on him when Judge White, Gen. Harrison, 
and Mr. Webster took the field as Presidential candidates. 
No one of them, nor all combined, have any chance of suc- 
cess, but by effecting divisions and schisms in our ranks. This 
can never be done so effectually as by destroying the great 
and deserved popularity of Gen. Jackson with the Republican 
party. That being accomplished, his measures and principles 
of policy fall with him, and with their overthrow, Mr. Van 
Buren's must follow of course. Hence it is, that in every at- 
tack the opposition have closely identified Gen. Jackson 
with Mr. Van Buren, and thus rendered the defence of the one 
essentially the vindication of the other. 

We now wish to bring this address to a close. In mak- 
ing this appeal, we have nothing to accomplish but what 
we sincerely believe is equally desired by a vast number of the 
friends of Judge White, tow it : the preservation of the sound 
principles of our government. We are solemnly convinced, 
that such preservation requires us forthwith to 'give up the sup- 
port of Judge White, and to unite with our Republican brethren 
of other States in the support of Mr. Van Buren, and thereby 
enable the people to make choice of the next President, instead 
of the House of Representatives. In this, we know a large 
portion of our fellow-citizens may differ from us in opinion. 
We, therefore, earnestly desire your attention to another view 
of the Presidential subject, which we believe you ought to 
take. If you are determined to cast the vote of Tennessee to 
Judge White, and to risk the consequences which we have at- 
tempted to portray, what course do you intend to take when, 
after all vour exertions, he may have to be surrendered ? If 
no election is made by the people, and the candidates shall go 
before the House, and if Judge White (being one of them) shall 
31 



464 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

be unable to succeed, who, then, shall be supported by the 
members of Congress from this State ? A majority of them, it 
is known, will vote for Judge White ; but, he being dropped, 
who will they support afterward? You have made known to 
them your wishes as to Judge White, but as yet } 7 ou have told 
them nothing of your second choice. We think we hazard 
nothing, when we say, that it is now as certain that Mr. Van 
Buren is the second choice of Tennessee, as it has ever been 
that Judge White was her first choice ; and yet we have the 
most awful forebodings that, in the contest between Mr. Van 
Buren and Gen. Harrison, or Mr. Webster, that a majority of 
our present members of Congress would vote for either of the 
two latter against Mr. Van Buren. We, therefore, most ear- 
nestly appeal to the friends of Judge White, to make known 
their wishes on this point to our Representatives in Congress- 
Convene in the same manner, and make known to them your 
second in the same manner as you did your first choice. We 
implore you not to slight nor neglect our admonitions on this 
point. We do believe that, in all probability, the next election 
is destined to be decided by the House. When it shall have 
gone there, after a few ballotings, it will be found necessary to 
drop Judge White ; and, when that is done, we do greatly fear 
that the vote of Tennessee may be made to turn the scale in 
favor of one or the other of the Federal candidates. The mo- 
ment that is done, what must be the remorse of Tennessee for 
having given up her power and her rights to a few members of 
Congress, to barter away her principles, and plunge her into 
associations which, in her heart, she detests and abhors. To 
avoid such evils, our first advice is, not to let this election go to 
the House at all — net to place the destiny of a great and 
brave people into the hands of your members of Congress — to 
keep that destiny, under the providence of God, in your own 
hands, by electing that one of the Republican candidates who 
can, in the first instance, with your assistance, be elected by the 
people.. This is the voice of reason and safety, echoed back by 
the soundest Republican maxims. But, if you will not do this, 
our second advice is, that you make known to your Represen- 
tatives that, how; \ »r warmly they sustain Judge White, both in 
and out of the House, yet when the hour shall come that their 



AN ADDRESS. 4G5 

attachment can no longer be serviceable to him, that thcv must 
instantly fly to the support of the other Republican candidate, 
and in no event vote for a Federal one. By pursuing such a 
course, if you do not gain the credit of following the dictates 
of the highest wisdom, you at least avoid the perpetration of 
the greatest folly and mischief to your country. 

We intend to commit no trespass on your patience, in pro- 
nouncing an eulogium on Martin Van Buren. Our opinions of 
him have been frequently stated throughout this address on the 
great questions now involved in the politics of this country. 
His private life is above reproach, and his public career is 
written on the proudest pages of our Republican history. He 
received the vote of HughLawson White as Secretary of State, 
as Minister to England, and as Vice President of this great Re- 
public. Slander has often assailed, but truth and honor have 
ever sustained him in the most trying conflicts through which 
his devotion to the Democracy of the country ever required 
him to pass. Throughout this whole contest, bitter and severe 
as it has been, he has borne himself with a dignity and equa- 
nimity of temper, which must ever command the admiration of 
the intelligent and liberal of all parties. 

Pulaski Committee. Robert A. Hewitt, 

A. V. Brown Henry W. Williams. 

A. Flournov, Cornersville Committee. 

Thos. P. Adams, Simeon Marsh, 

W. F. Mason, John B. Rodgers, 

James Paine, William James, Sr., 

G. A. Gloover , R. W. Robinson, 

W. R. Brown, Joseph Nance, 

James Blford, Woodson Walker, 

Jesse Abernathy, Henry Wineow. 

Thomas Martin, Eltcton Committee. 

Wm. C. Flournoy. r> e» tt 

K. B. Harny, 

Campbellsviue Committee. j NO A.Austin 

Lewis Parker, D. H. Abernathy, 

Samuel Faries, L. G. Upshaw, 

James P. Deanes, Joseph (Joode. 



LETTER OF AARON V. BROWN, 

To his Constituents of the Tenth Congressional District of the 
State of Tennessee, September, 1842. 



Gentlemen : Never, in the course of many years of public 
life, have I so much desired to return to the bosom of a gen- 
erous and noble-hearted constituency, to see you face to face, 
and to commune freely with you on the present state of our 
public affairs. But I find that I can have no such high gratifi- 
cation. Those who now rule the destinies of this country, seem 
to have resolved that the sovereign remedy for existing evils is 
perpetual legislation — so nearly perpetual, that they do not 
leave, between one session and another, sufficient time to the 
Representative (if he attend at all to his private concerns) to 
return to his district, and inhale fresh inspirations of wisdom 
and virtue from his constituency. The perplexing question is 
often asked, what the people of this country have gained by 
the Whig triumphs of 1840 ? Whatever of difficulty the domi- 
nant party may find in answering this question, one thing is 
certain, that they have kept Congress so long in session, that 
every one of them who are members of it, have been able 
to draw from the public treasury at the rate of eight dol- 
lars per day for every day since the 4th of March, 1841. This 
certainly is something to them, whatever it maybe to the people. 
Never, in the annals of any country, so far as legislation was 
concerned, did a party have so full and so fair a chance to 
accomplish some great and striking advancement of the public 



JL LETTER. 467 

good. They came into power on the 4th of March, 1841, 
flushed with victory, and proudly boasting of an immense ma- 
jority in both branches of the National Legislature. They 
elected their own presiding officers — appointed their own com- 
mittees. They decreed in caucus what particular subjects 
should be acted on, and what should be excluded. They estab- 
lished their own rules, breaking down all the ancient safeguards 
of legislation. They suppressed everything like freedom of 
debate, by placing the infamous gag on their opponents, 
thereby silencing all opposition to their proceedings. In fine, 
they did what they pleased, when they pleased, and as they 
pleased. I do not mean at this point to discuss the measures of 
the called session : that belongs to another part of my letter. 
I am now dealing with narrative, not with commentary. 

During the early portion of their career, all was peace and 
harmony in their party. I mean all that met, or was intended 
" to meet the public eye," was such. At length, however, the 
foul demon of discord appeared amongst their ranks. I say 
appeared, for I do not doubt he had always been there. How 
could any man doubt it? Their unnatural combinations, their 
strange and contemptible devices, and all the vile and corrupt- 
ing means by which they achieved their victory, clearly show 
that they were " possessed of a demon" from the beginning. 
In overthrowing the sub-treasury, and undoing, in hot and 
inconsiderate haste, many things which had been done by 
Jackson and Van Buren, all were perfectly united. Mr. Clay 
in the Senate, and Mr. Adams in the House, actuated by all 
the feelings of revenge which frequent discomfiture could in- 
spire, led on in this inglorious work of destruction. But when 
they came to build up for themselves and their party those 
institutions and measures which were to be substituted for those 
which they had destroyed, all became discord and confusion. 
Mr. Clay wanted a bank for individual speculation. President 
Tyler would have none which was not purely national and 
public in its functions, and strictly guarded against local dis- 
counts. The former looking more to the interest of h\s parti- 
sans, the latter to that of the nation, their differences became 
irreconcilable. The consequence was, the two vetoes on both 
the bank bills. The President stood on his conscience and the 



468 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

Constitution ; Mr. Clay on his bank ; whilst the cabinet,, (ex- 
cept Mr. Webster,) thinking, no doubt, that it was all nonsense 
to be talking about conscience and the Constitution at such a 
party crisis as that, suddenly threw up their commissions, and 
retired from the public service. At this trying period in their 
history, some few of the Whig party conducted themselves with 
a show of reasonable moderation. They seemed to have some 
respect for the sacred obligations of the President's oath ; and 
however much they differed with him in opinion, in his construc- 
tion of the Constitution, they could not censure that regard for 
moral obligation which the President had so fully evinced on the 
occasion. But the Clay portion of the party scoffed at all this, 
as hypocritical and idle. They denounced him as a traitor ; the 
vile wretch at the other end of the avenue ; the perjured miscre- 
ant ; besides many other terms of wanton and unmerited re- 
proach. The great dictator to his party, and the would-have- 
been dictator to John Tyler, raved and roared like a lion deprived 
of his prey. In his rage and fury, he seized on the great con- 
servative power of the Constitutton, and vainly endeavored to 
tear it out from that consecrated instrument. I say vainly en- 
deavored, although this war on the veto power is not yet termi- 
nated : it is yet raging ; and we have witnessed, at the present 
session, the strange and appalling spectacle of Mr. Clay, in the 
Senate, endeavoring to pull down this, the noblest pillar in the 
Constitution ; whilst Mr. Adams, in the House, was taking the 
most effectual means to overthrow the whole Constitution and 
the Union together. 

Such was the actual condition of the Whig party at the 
close of the ever-memorable called session of 1811. I speak 
not yet of their measures — their tendency to prostrate all the 
best interests of the country — nor of the highly censurable, 
not to say flagitious, means by which they were carried through 
Congress. I have another time and place for all this. My 
purpose is next to call your attention to the extraordinary con- 
dition of parties at the commencement of the present ses- 
sion of Congress — the regular one under the Constitution. 
Warned by their failure to do anything valuable or useful to 
the country at the preceding session, and alarmed at the indig- 
nant murmurs of the people, the Clay portion of the Whig 



A LETTER, 4 GO 

party, at the very earliest moment, declared that they would 
no longer be responsible for the management of public . 
The President, they said, had separated himself from them; 
and, as he had set up to have both a conscience and ajudgn 
of his own, upon him should rest the responsibility of admin- 
istering the government. Now, it was known that, although 
the President was a Whig — that every member of his cabinet 
was a Whig — and that he had a brave and gallant little baud 
of Whig friends in the House — yet it was evidently impossible 
for him to meet this new responsibility, without a new organi- 
zation of at least the House of Representatives. Did the Clay 
Whigs give the Tyler Whigs (as they should have done) the 
ability and means of meeting this responsibility, thus suddenly 
thrown upon them ? As a member of the Democratic party — 
belonging to neither, but determined to go with either, as far 
as I could consistently with my principles, in advancing the 
welfare of the country — I do not hesitate to say that they did 
not. From time immemorial it has been customary to give the 
Administration in being, the Speaker and the standing com- 
mittees of the House, in order to give it a fair opportunity to 
bring forward and fully present its measures to the nation — a 
practice no less sanctioned by the principles of liberality and 
justice, than by immemorial usage. The President had vetoed, 
and, /j. o tan to, had rejected Mr. Clay's views and projects in 
relation to banks and the currency — the great questions of the 
times — on which, as it was alleged, all the relief of the people 
from pecuniary embarrassment depended, in consequence of 
which, his quondam friends were now declaring that all respon- 
sibility should be on him, and not on them. Was it, then, 
anything but fair that he should have a full opportunity to pre- 
sent /</s own views and projects on these and other all-important 
subjects? But how did the case stand at the beginning, and 
throughout the whole period of this nine months' session ? 
How was it with the Speaker? When elected, he was, but 
now he is no friend of the Administration ; but the warm and 
bosom friend of its greatest enemy. Yet he would not resign ; 
he would not generously relax his grasp on that high office, 
which the party, in the days of its unity, had conferred upon 
him. No ; he held to it with all the tenacity which hostility to 



470 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

the Executive, or devotion to the Dictator, could inspire. 
What a vantage ground it proved to be, when he came to the 
appointment of Mr. Adams, and others like him, (if he can 
have likenesses,) on the special committee on the veto message 
of the President on the tariff bill ! I speak all this in no spirit 
of unkindness to the Speaker, but with that impartiality which 
belongs to the history of this extraordinary session. 

But how was it with the committees, far more important than 
the Speaker ? How was it with the chairman of the Ways and 
Means, [Mr. Fillmore,] always regarded, here and everywhere, 
as the organ and confidential friend of the Administration? 
Would he resign ? No ; not he. He had acquired a command 
over the business of the House, over the treasury, and over the 
very salaries of the President and all in authority under him, 
which he would never relinquish. How was it with the Com- 
mittee on Foreign Affairs? Would that chairman, [Mr. 
Adams] resign? No. The Georgia petition (which he pre- 
sented himself) asking him to resign, for being monomaniacal 
on the subject of slavery — which, in the case of the Cre- 
ole and others, might come before him — could not move him. 
The unwillingness of three — nay, of six — honorable gentlemen 
to serve under him, could not move him. Even after the pre- 
sentation by him of a petition for the dissolution of this great 
and glorious Union, there was no power of the House (out of 
his own party) which could have moved him. There he re- 
mained, holding the command of the foreign policy of this gov- 
ernment, a bitter and confirmed enemy to the Administration, 
and an immense debtor to the Dictator for the highest station 
which he ever filled. I could not look upon all this without re- 
membering what I had said of these two (then and now) dis- 
tinguished individuals, fifteen years ago, in the Legislature of 
Tennessee: "Mr. Adams desired the office of President: he 
went into the combination without it, and came out with it. 
Mr. Clay desired the office of Secretary of State : he went into 
the combination without it, and came out with it." 

I will mention but one other committee of the House, whose 
chairman [Mr. Stanly] is remarkable for his violent opposition 
to the President. This is the committee over which our most 
distinguished generals — coming up from the battle-fields of the 



A LETTER, 471 

Revolution, or of the second war for independence — have 
usually presided. Would any of these have been proud to 
continue to be the sic or d bearer to a President, after they had 
denounced him as weak, corrupt, and infamous? 

But I mean to dwell no longer on this descriptio persona; of 
the officials of the Clay party in the House of Representa- 
tives. I have said enough to show you that the sword, the 
purse, and the foreign policy of this country, have all been 
taken away from the President, and given up to his enemies. 
And yet they came forward and said that he must be respon- 
sible for everything, and they responsible for nothing ! 

During all the period of discord and the final disruption of 
the Whig party, the Democrats remained quiet and dispas- 
sionate spectators. They regarded it, throughout, as a sort of 
family quarrel, with which it were alike indelicate and impru- 
dent to interfere. They had differed with the President in opi- 
nion on almost every leading measure of his recommendation 
or final adoption — his veto message on the bank bills only ex- 
cepted. They had looked upon these as noble acts of self- 
devotion and patriotism, which might well challenge the grati- 
tude and admiration of the country. When, at the late ses- 
sion, we found ourselves constrained to bestow the like com- 
mendations on him for his veto on the tariff bill, we were 
openly denounced as having seduced the President, and formed 
a corrupt bargain and coalition with him — a charge preferred 
without proof, and against proof. My colleague of the David- 
son district, on that occaiion, ventured far out into the unex- 
plored regions of unfounded accusation; but took good care to 
secure his safe return, behind the ignoble protection of the pre- 
vious question. That gentleman should have been amongst 
the last men in Congress to have repeated a charge which, he 
must have known, had its origin only in the chagrin and pas- 
sion which prompted its utterance. He was long enough a 
member of the old Jackson and Van Buren Democratic party 
to know; that it never stooped " to bargain, corruption, and in- 
trigue," for the accomplishment of any of its high and patriotic 
purposes. Those are the weapons of his new allies, (Clay and 
Adams,) to whose standard he has fled, and whose cause he is 
now seekingto advance with so much ardor and zeal. If pledged 



472 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



(as I believe he was) to demand the previous question, he 
should have forborne to make such an attack on the Democracy 
of the House, when he knew that he intended to give them no 
opportunity to repel and defend. The previous question has 
been the fortress to which that gentleman and his party friends 
have often fled for shelter and protection. Witness the recent 
case of the President's protest, when they held fast their vic- 
tim, giving to the most fierce and savage of their party a full 
opportunity to lacerate and tear his flesh ; and then, when the 
hour of retribution arrived, bore oif the executioner to that 
great Whig city of refuge — the previous question. 

But it is probably time that I should leave this running nar- 
rative. I have intended it as a general outline of party move- 
ments, essential to the proper understanding of those obnoxious 
and ruinous measures which the Whig party have passed, or 
attempted to pass, since their advent to power. What have 
been 

THE MEASURES OF THE WHIG PARTY ? 

I do not mean to give you any long, prosing enumeration cf 
them, nor of the arguments for and against them. Nor do I mean 
to make any classification of them, as to the called or regular 
sessions. I consider both sessions in the same light — both as 
exhibiting the most wretched disregard of the most solemn 
promises made to the people anterior to their election. Amongst 
others, the promise of relief was the most prominent. Mr. 
Clay did not hesitate to proclaim, that the mere fact of the 
election of Gen. Harrison would raise the price of property in 
every portion of the Union. Mr. Crittenden [his then col- 
league, and now successor in the Senate,] declared that, in his 
opinion, it would add one hundred millions of dollars of capital 
to the country. All the Whig electors, and other itinerant 
orators of 1840, expressed similar opinions, and uttered the 
same false and deceitful prophecy. It deceived hundreds and 
thousands in that election. When reminded of all this at the 
called session, the evasive reply was," True; but we cannot 
do everything at once. Wait but another year, and you will 
see the glorious realization of all our promises." Well, the 
country has waited, until thousands, who expected relief from 
them, have become hopeless bankrupts. Property of every 



A LETTER. \~ ,'J 

description has gone down. Produce — cotton, rice, tobacco, 
wheat, and, indeed, everything — has fallen to a price not re- 
membered by our oldest inhabitants. What was but a fleeting 
shadow of adversity in 1840, has now settled down into the 
dark midnight of ruin, and almost of despair. And what arc 
we told now ? Why, " Take the benefit of the bankrupt law." 
"Swear oil all your debts." And then "foreswear Captain 
Tyler and the veto power of the Constitution forever." In all 
the gravity which this distressing subject is calculated to in- 
spire, may we not now ask — may not the people throughout 
all this broad land now ask — " Is this the entertainment to 
which wc were invited ?" 

Of this bankrupt law, (the only measure of relief to which 
the Whigs can point,) I have but little to say. It was a favorite 
measure of Mr. Clay, not among the subjects mentioned in the 
President's message, but was forced on the list of subjects to be 
acted on, by the overshadowing influence of that individual. 
It passed by a vote of 111 to 105 — every Democrat in the 
House, except 3, and every one in the Senate, except 4, voting 
against it, and disputing every inch of the ground. Every 
Whig member from Tennessee voted for it, except Mr. Win, 
B. Campbell and Mr. Gentry. Mr. Milton Brown flushed his 
maiden sword in debate upon it. General Caruthcrs threw 
round it all the stately blandishments of his approbation. The 
three gentlemen from East Tennessee gave a clear and hearty 
affirmative to the call of the clerk, evincing the delight which 
the opportunity to give such a vote had evidently inspired. 
I r ou may judge, then, fellow-citiz.ens, my surprise, on seeing it 
often stated in the public press of Tennessee, that not a single 
distinguished Whig in the State was in favor of the bankrupt 
bill. All these gentlemen arc quite distinguished, as they de- 
serve to be, and can hardly be flattered by such an unjust party 
pretermission. But the object, no doubt, was to screen another 
" distinguished citizen " of the State from the imputation of 
being in favor of the bankrupt law, inferred from his inveterate 
silence when interrogated on the subject ; and for this purpose, 
Messrs. Caruthers, Brown, J. L. Williams, C. II. Williams, Jef- 
ferson Campbell, and last, though not least, in the way of dis- 
tinction, Thomas D. Arnold, were to be all rapped over llic 
knuckles for his benefit. 



474 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

The next subject of their legislation which I wish briefly to 
notice, is — 

THE BILL FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PROCEEDS OF THE PUBLIC 

LANDS. 

I have never been able to learn from them whether this was 
one of their measures of relief to the people, or not. They have 
found it very hard to show how it can be a relief to a man from 
pecuniary embarrassment, to take his own money out one of his 
pockets, and put it into another — taking a part of the money 
as commission for performing the operation. Now, if you 
would give him more of somebody else's money, you might talk 
to him about the additional help and relief it might be in the 
payment of his debts ; but to shift his own money from one 
pocket to another, and then tell him how much better off he 
has become than he was before, is a sort of charlatanism easiy 
exposed. The people of this country have two sets of treasu- 
ries — the National and State. These must both be kept sup- 
plied — the one for general or national purposes, the other to 
meet their local demands. Now, it is evident that, in times of 
scarcity, when both are insufficient to meet the proper calls on 
them, it can be no relief to take out of one and put in the other; 
because you must instantly turn round and fill up the vacancy 
which your false and deceptive financiering had created. Nor 
have I ever met with one Whig so shrewd as to be able to avoid 
the just application of that homely aphorism, that it is always 
wrong " to rob Peter to pay Paul" — to rob the General Govern- 
ment to pay the States. But this case of distribution is much 
worse than that. It is robbing Peter to pay Peter, and then 
insulting him by the assurance that you have made him much 
richer by the operation. But I will not enlarge on this, because 
I have always believed that the main design and purpose of 
giving away this fund was to have a plausible excuse for the 
passage of a higher and more oppressive tariff for the protec- 
tion of Northern manufacturers. A few Southern Whigs com- 
muning with them in their midnight caucuses, and thereby 
learning more of their ultimate designs, positively refused to go 
for the bill, until there was an express provision for its repeal 
whenever the rate of duties should be raised above twenty 
percent — that being the rate of the compromise act of 1833. 



A LETTER. 475 

Here commenced a system of legislation that can never reflect 
credit on the Congress or party which enacted the distribution 
and the bankrupt laws. If the tendencies of both laws were 
injurious, the mode and circumstances of the passage were 
flagitious. The latter bill was rejected on one day, by nearly 
a dozen votes. On the night of that same day a caucus was 
held, in which the importance of that bill, in a party point of 
view, and the dependence of the distribution bill upon it, were 
explained and insisted on. The result was, that next morning 
the vote of rejection was reconsidered, and the vote passed by 
a majority nearly as large as the one by which it was rejected 
on the day before. Some dodged, others got sick, whilst several 
reversed their recorded votes of the preceding day. The distri- 
bution law, in the meantime, had been hanging in the Senate 
in a state of suspended animation. The vote rejecting the 
bankrupt bill was considered as having sealed its fate; and 
the whole party, in a wretched state of despondence, were pre- 
paring to break up the session, and go home, having failed 
in every great measure which they had attempted, But mark 
the sudden change ! The moment the news of the next morn- 
ing arrived in the Senate chamber, that the bankrupt bill had 
been reconsidered, and passed, the countenance of the great 
Dictator and his friends brightened up; the distribution bill 
was reanimated and passed — even then by the smallest possi- 
ble majority. How sincerely should it be wished that the eye 
of a virtuous and enlightened posterity should never rest upon 
the page that records the incidents of this transaction. 

I wish next to call your attention to a measure, or rather a 
system of measures, for borrowing money. You have seldom 
been aide to look over the public newspapers, without finding 
something about 



THE LOAN BILL, 



or, in plainer language, the bill to increase the national debt, 
by borrowing more money. The frequency of such bills, the 
low condition of our finances, and the difficulty of negotiating 
for money on the national credit, must have attracted much of 
your attention. That our treasury is in an exhausted and al- 
most bankrupt condition, is not to be denied; and that it must 
continue so, in a great degree, for some time, if this party is 



470 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

to be continued in power, I think is equally manifest. "What 
sort of a treasury would satisf}' their enormous appropriations, 
or meet the increased and accumulating extravagance of their 
expenditures ? 

In 1840 they saw Mr. Van Buren expending $22,389,350, and 
pronounced such extravagance alone to be sufficient for his 
instant expulsion from office. They contrasted this sum with 
that which the}' said was the amount of Mr. Adams's adminis- 
tration, and cried " Down with them for such reckless extrava- 
gance. " Yet, strange to tell, the very first year that they came 
in, they actually expended $26,300,000 — four millions and odd 
more than Mr. Van Buren had expended. They do not pro- 
pose, for any future year, to expend less than twenty-six or 
twenty-seven millions of dollars. All the great oracles have 
said it, and published it to the nation. Clay, Evans, Adams, 
Fillmore, SaltonstaH — all agree that no less than twenty-six 
or twenty-seven millions of dollars will do for them. What a 
commentary on their professions of economy and retrenchment 
made before the election. I have watched them closely, to dis- 
cover by what new devices they mean to endeavor hereafter to 
impose on you, on this subject of retrenchment and reform. 
They mean to point you to one or two clerks ; to as many 
little orphan pages about the hall; and to one old man, his 
horse and cart, that they turned out of office ; but nearly all of 
whom, I believe, they afterwards turned back again. They 
will call yowv attention also to the contingent expenses struck 
out of the general appropriation bill — amounting in all to a very 
considerable sum of money. But I pray of you to demand of 
them to show the separate bill for the same contingent expenses 
subsequently reported and passed — swelling and increasing the 
amount far beyond what it was before — inserting new clerks 
on high salaries, and rendered so extravagant that the very 
gentleman [Mr. Gentry] who moved in the matter, and whose 
motion was extravagantly eulogised in the Whig papers of 
Tennessee, repudiated the bill altogether, and denounced the 
outrageous extravagance of the committee (Whig, of course) who 
had reported it. You must remember,also, what great parade 
was made over the supposed discovery that three or four clerks 
had been employed without the regular sanction of law. But 



A LETTER, 477 

their supposed discovery soon turned out to be no discovery 
at all. Every one of them had been lawfully appointed andpaid 
annually in the proper appropriation bills. But it was con- 
tended that, although that might make them lawful, yet it would 
be abetter practice to have them appointed by a separate law 
disconnected with the appropriation bill. This, of course, 
presented a mere matter of expediency, and dissipated into 
thinnest air the attempt to criminate preceding Congresses who 
thought proper to appoint them by a different mode of legisla- 
tion. There is another device which you may look out to be 
played ofFupon you, as an excuse for spending annually upwards 
of four millions more than was expended under Mr. Van Ui iron's 
administration. They have already attempted to do this, even 
here ; and, though baffled and refuted by the reports of their 
own Secretary, and the lucid speeches of Messrs. Woodbury, 
Benton, Atherton, Calhoun, and others, the}" will, no doubt, 
attempt to do it again. The pretence is, that a good deal of this 
money, (the twenty millions authorized to be loaned) and the 
large expenses estimated for the four years of their administra- 
tion, is needed to pay off a large public debt inherited by 
them from Mr. Van Buren's administration. So much had 
been said and insinuated, from time to time, on the subject, 
that, on the 23d of September last, the Senate adopted a reso- 
lution calling on the Secretary of the ..Treasury to report the 
amount of the public debt on the 3d of March, 1841, the day 
when Mr. Van Buren went out, and General Harrison went 
into office. That account, taken from the records of their own 
Secretary, shows the debt (which they say they inherited 
from Mr. Van Buren) to have been only $5,607,361 54, This 
document is numbered forty-one on the files of the Senate. 
Whenever you shall hear this inherited debt presented as an 
excuse for these vast expenditures now going on, and in further 
contemplation, put an end to all mystification on the subject by 
requiring the production of this document. It was intended to 
settle this question, and docs settle it foie\ er. 

APPORTIONMENT BILL — ORGANIZATION OF Till', BOl 

I am compelled to pass over altogether many subjects of 
recent legislation, justly deserving the most pointed rebuke. 
such, among others, are the bill apportioning representation 



478 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

among the States, and the bill regulating proceedings in case of 
contested elections. The first act contains a dangerous inva- 
sion on the rights of the States, which I resisted at every 
stage of its progress, whilst there was any hope of getting 
clear of the obnoxious provision, mandatory to the sovereign 
States of the Union. The Democratic party resisted that pro- 
vision, from the time it was offered, and sought every oppor- 
tunity afterwards to strike it from the bill ; most of them, 
indeed, finally voted against the bill altogether, rather than 
submit to it. Others, believing tbat it was their bounden duty to 
make an apportionment under the Constitution, and that, if it 
were not done it might threaten a consequence little short of 
the dissolution of the government, felt themselves bound to 
yield to the unrelenting power of the majority. Upon their 
heads be the responsibility of forcing this provision into a bill ; 
which they knew was obliged to be passed in some form or other. 
At no distant day will they feel the full force of that responsi- 
bility in the returning surges of popular indignation. The 
second bill contained provisions in relation to the organiza- 
tion of the House at the commencement of each session, 
and conferring powers on the Clerk to determine who should 
be regarded and qualified as the lawful members of the body; 
utterly inconsistent with that clear, and, until now, never 
invaded provision of the Constitution, which declares that 
»' each House shall be the judge of the elections, qualifications, 
and returns of its own members." It was evidently a strata- 
gem to save something from the wreck of their falling fortunes. 
They knew at the time the law requiring elections to be held 
by districts was passed, that some States had elected their 
members already, or would do so before the news would reach 
them of the passage of the act. They knew, also, that some 
States were so attached, from ancient usage, to the general 
ticket system, that they would most probably not conform to 
the law ; and then, as the Clerk who would have to officiate as 
high priest for the party at the opening of the next Congress, 
would be a Whig, they hoped, by these means, to get some 
party advantage, which might save them, at least for a time. 
from total and utter discomfiture. Vain hope ! delusive expec- 
tation ! No breach of the Constitution — no invasion of the 



A LETTER. 479 

rights of the States— no high priest to cheat for you after the 
election, can save you from the deep condemnation of the people 
at the election. The only remaining measure of the late session, 
which the limits of this letter will allow me to mention is 

THE TARIFF. 

The Bank was the favorite measure with the Southern Whigs : 
the tariff with the Northern ones. The first had been lost by 
the veto of the called session ; and the second was involved in 
much difficulty by two solemn compromises, limiting its amount 
to twenty per cent. The first compromise was in 1833, in order 
to prevent civil war, and a probable dissolution of the Union. 
The North had enjoyed the benefit of it, on their part, ever since ; 
and now the time was coming (30th June, 18 12) when the South 
was to begin to enjoy it on her part. It has often been ques- 
tioned whether the North would continue to adhere to this 
solemn compact or not, when it began to be her interest to 
violate it. Hence the candidates for the Presidency in 1840 
were often questioned on the subject, because the South could 
not afford to vote for any man for that high office who would 
withhold from it her part of the bargain, after the North, for 
nearly ten years, had been pocketing millions upon millions 
under it. The Southern Whigs obtained the solemn promise 
of General Harrison that he never would consent to set aside 
or violate the compromise act of 1833. In his Zanesville letter 
he said : 

" I am for supporting the compromise act, and never will agree to its bi 
altered or repealed." 

In reply to a letter from Mr. Berrien of Georgia, he said : 
" (.'ood faith, and tlvj peace and harmony of the CTnion, do, in iny opinion, 

require that the compromise of the tariff, known as Mr. Clay's bill, should be 

carried out according to its spirit and intention." 

Well, these letters were published ; and many of the States, 
opposed to any other tariff than the compromise, voted for 
Harrison and Tyler — the latter of whom every one knew to be 
so much of an anti-tariff man as to have been even a nullifier 
in the days of that doctrine. But Harrison was dead at the 
time of the called session, and the time was rapidly approach- 
ing when the fidelity of the North would be brought to the 

test. It was, therefore, highly important to the South to get 
32 



480 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

some renewed pledge from those who were still professing to 
be the Harrison party, and to reverence and honor his princi- 
ples. An opportunity occurred on the passage of the distri- 
bution bill. It was said often in argument in relation to that 
bill, that, if the land money was given away, Congess would be 
obliged to raise the duties above twenty per cent., in violation of 
the compromise, in order to have money enough to carry on 
the government. This roused up Southern Senators to demand 
a renewal of the Harrison pledge, never to violate the terms of 
the compromise. Without this renewed pledge, they declared 
that they could not and would not vote for the distribution. 
Thereupon, the Whig party in the Senate did give the -pledge, by 
introducing the proviso, that if, at any time, the duties should be 
raised above twenty per cent., the land distribution should cease. 
They sent it to the House of Reprelentatives, where the Whig 
party of that body signed, sealed, and, ratified the same pledge. 
The good faith of the North to the observance of the compro- 
mise having been thus more than doubly secured — secured 
by the pledge of Mr. Clay, that no honorable man deserving the 
name of an American statesman, would ever propose its viola- 
tion — secured by the pledge of General Harrison, that he would 
never consent to set it aside — secured now, in 1841, by the 
pledge of the Whig party in both Houses of Congress, that they 
did not intend its violation, and that, if they ever did, they would 
instantly surrender the further distribution of the land fund. 
With such assurances as these, the land bill received the sanc- 
tion and signature of the President. Now, under all these 
solemn covenants, compacts, compromises, or whatever else 
you may choose to call them, made in old. and recent times by 
the leaders of the party, and by the parly itself, what ought to 
have been done by them in relation to the tariff at the present 
session ? [Cf 3 They ought to have enacted only a few obvious 
provisions in relation to the mode of ascertaining the home val- 
uation, and of carrying into effect the compromise act of 1833. 
This, and the correction of some enors of the last session in 
regard to the list of free articles, are, in my opinion, all that 
honor, justice and good faith allowed them to have done. This 
could have been done in a few weeks, at farthest; half of this 
everlasting session could have been saved, and all the parts of 



A LETTER. 481 

our country, now excited and agitated by this dangerous and 
delicate question, could have been reposing in confidence and 
affection under the equal and benign protection of the Consti- 
tution. It may seem to you strange that this "consummation 
devoutly to be wished" for, was not attained. But you must 
remember that it has been the policy of the dominant party not 
to bring forward their measures separately, but to link and 
fasten them together, so that, by a combination of various in- 
terests, all should be dragged through together. The journals 
show that no one of the great measures of either session ever 
commanded the majority of the two Houses of Congress. Not 
one of them. Neither distribution, the bank, the tariff, nor the 
bankrupt law, ever had a majority of the two Houses ; and yet 
all of them were gotten through. I have just shown you how 
the bankrupt bill dragged through the distribution bill, and how 
the latter, by increasing the wants of the treasury, dragged 
through the tariff. All these measures were declared by the 
Dictator to constitute a system, and should be judged of and 
acted on as a system, and not on their individual and separate 
merits or demerits. Hence it became the interest of all to sup- 
port each, and of each to support all. But the President, by 
his veto, had put the bank interest out of the concern, and there 
remained, to trade upon at this session, only the two remaining 
measures — distribution and the tariff. I have just mentioned 
the embarrassing pledge which both of these interests had given 
at the preceding session. According to that pledge, if the tariff 
went up above twenty per cent., distribution must eease. If 
it did not go up above twenty per cent., the manufacturers in- 
sisted that they would be ruined. In the meantime, it was known 
that the President would not sanction both. What, then, was 
to be done ? The party was in extremis — its agony immense. 
If the walls of their secret council chamber could speak, what a 
tale would they tell of this ill-judging and ill-doing party ! 
Well, their resolution was taken — to make one more bold and 
united charge, and drive the President, if possible, from his 
position — compel him to sanction both distribution and a higher 
tariff than the compromise. " What though he remind us that 
the compromise was the work of Mr. Clay? what if he shall 
tell us of General Harrison's and his own pledges of 1840^ 



482 MISCELLANEOUS BOCUMEN — 

what if he show us the page of our own recorded pledge of the 
last session ? — we have no alternative." The bill is accord- 
ingly prepared — distribution and protection are linked together. 
What sort of protection ? The highest, having reference to the 
rates established, the present prices of most articles, and the 
general circumstances of the times, which was ever passed in 
this country. 1 have no time to show you its enormous rates 
now on sugar, iron, salt, domestics, woollens, on everything. I 
have done that on another occasion. The Democrats did all 
they could ; they stood on the compromise ; they advanced 
even farther, in the later progress of the measure They 
brought forward a proposition (Senator Sevier's) advancing 
five per cent, on the compromise act, and allowing home valu- 
ation and cash duties beside — equal to at least thirty per cent. 
But it was all in vain ; their own bill, and nothing but their 
own bill, they were determined to have. 

They passed it by a vote of 105 to 103; and, had all the 
members been present, it would have been an exact tie, and 
dependent on the vote of the Speaker. That vote would have 
been undoubtedly given in favor of the bill. This would have 
presented the question, whether the Whigs would have had a 
bill by virtue of the one-man power. They complain griev- 
ously that they lose a bill by such an odious power, and surely 
they would refuse to receive one from such a source. 

The bill was so enormous and unjust in its rate of duties, 
that, although it was one of high party interest, every one 
of my Whig colleagues from Middle and West Tennessee (ex- 
cept Mr. Gentry) voted against it. The veto of the President. 
however, although it defeated the very bill which they them- 
selves had voted to defeat, they did not and would not support. 
Such was their exasperation against Mr. Tyler for doing pre- 
cisely what they had done, (withholding his approbation,) that 
when the bill was again put on its passage, as required by the 
Constitution, not one of them would vote against it, as they had 
done before. I suppose they concluded, that, as they could not 
consistently vote for the bill, and as a vote against it might 
seem too much like agreeing with the President, they concluded 
not to vote at all ! On the passage of the McKennan bill, 
(without distribution,) the Democratic members of the State 



A LETTER. ;-.". 

had the gratification of recording their votes with those of every 
Whig Representative from it (except Mr. Joseph L. Williams) 
against the bill. It was, indeed, a most gratifying concurrence 
of opinion, indicating that there would be, at all events, not 
more than one man from the whole State to sustain this odious 
and oppressive measure. But our satisfaction was ot brief du- 
ration. When the bill returned from the Senate, a motion was 
made to lay it, with all its amendments, on the table. If this 
motion succeeded, the bill would be defeated, and the country 
rcscued from all the evils which it was calculated to inllict, at 
least on the agricultural States. It was the last final test vote 
on the subject. But our Whig friends, with only two excep- 
tions, voted against laying it on the table. These exceptions 
were Mr. Gentry and Mr. C. H.Williams, who were, no doubt, 
unavoidably absent, and, therefore, did not vote at all. Even 
the burly and intractable Arnold, who had been with us in 
every contest, (after he lost his land, and got so mad with 
President Tyler for his veto,) now deserted us in the last dying 
struggle against the bill, and went back and joined again with 
our oppressors ! How strong are the triple cords that bind us 
to our party J I return from digression, to pursue further the 
history and progress of this measure. 

On the 9th of August the President returned the bill with his 
objections. The message was one of the best he had ever 
sent to Congress. Lucid in style, and cogent in argument, it 
marched directly on its object. It breathed no complaint that 
a second experiment had been made to drive him from his 
known opinions, nor uttered the slightest rebuke for this breach 
of the plighted faith of the party which had originally secured 
his signature to the distribution bill. But he was met in no cor- 
respondent spirit of forbearance and moderation. Whal was 
never done before, was perpetrated on this occasion. A special 
committee, composed of the President's bitterest enemies — 
Adams, Botts, Granger, and others — was appointed, to whom 
the message and the bill were referred. The report of Mr. 
Adams was all that might be expected from the vast but poi- 
soned well of learning (not knowledge) of that passionate and 
irritable old man. It abounded in whatever dislike to the Pre- 
sident, hereditary hatred to the Democracy of the country, and 



484 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

an ardent desire to pay off his old debt to Mr. Clay, could in- 
spire. It went far beyond the proper subject referred to the 
committee, and was evidently intended as a sort of apologetic 
address to the American people, for all the errors and short 
comings of the Whig party. Without taking time to examine 
this address, let me recite the extraordinary and exciting inci- 
dents in relation to the tariff, subsequent to the veto. The 
Clay portion of the party seemed roused to the very highest 
pitch of rage and fury. They declared for instant adjourn- 
ment. When reminded that one of their own bills (Mr. Bar- 
nard's) for remedying real or supposed defects in the collection 
of the revenue, ought to be acted on, they indignantly refused 
to go into committee upon it. When admonished that all the 
duties now were being paid under protest, and that if the 
courts should determine that no duties at all were collectable, 
the consequence might be the stoppage of the very wheels of 
government, — the reply was, Let them stop, and on John 
Tyler be the responsibility. The speech of Mr. Adams, his 
report, and the vote of the Whig party all indicated a fixed 
and determined purpose to abandon the halls of Congress 
forthwith, and leave the government to whatever fate might 
befall it. 

Even the midnight caucus drill had lost its magic potency. 
The eloquence of Marshall, (who was understood to be the first 
to insist that the bill should be passed without distribution,) the 
earnest and touching appeals of the manufacturers, could pro- 
duce no effect on the maddened and infuriated cohorts of the 
Dictator. The caucus broke up with the understanding that 
they could agree upon nothing on the subject, as a party; but 
that any member of it might bring forward such proposition 
as he thought proper, and that each one should vote for or 
against it, without any party responsibility. In this state of 
things, Mr. McKennan, a Whig of Pennsylvania, (a convert I 
believe to the arguments of Mr. Marshall,) came forward with 
the bill which had been vetoed — leaving out the twenty-seventh 
section in relation to distribution. In his speech, he avowed his 
determination, and that of most of his Whig friends, to support 
this bill, and no other. He said they would scorn to receive one 
at the hands of the Democrats; that it was useless for ihsm to 



A LETTER. 485 

move in the matter at all. Up to the very hour when the bill 
was passed, it was understood that the particular friends of Mr. 
Clay were still determined to go against the bill, and that they 
held the power to defeat it. This presented a mo^t trying crisis. 
That something should be done in relation to the collection of 
the revenue, was admitted by all. The Democratic party, gen- 
erally, were perfectly content with the rate of duties of the 
compromise; but as serious doubts were entertained by many 
whether some new law was not necessary to regulate the mode 
of collecting them, the}- were anxious that such doubt should 
be removed. They had often tried to remove it, but the Whig 
party had always prevented them. Now they were told that 
it was useless for them to propose anything, for the Whigs 
would scorn to receive it at their hands. What a strange con- 
dition was here. The Democrats can do nothing, because 
opposed by the whole Whig party en ?nasse. The Northern 
manufacturing Whig party can do nothing, because they pro- 
pose a tariff too high for Democratic acceptance ; and, because 
it omits distribution, the friends of Mr. Clay will give it no 
support, but insist on instant adjournment, and abandonment 
of the government to its fate. I but describe to you the actual 
and embarrassing condition of affairs at one of the most critical 
periods of our history. It was under such circumstances ; s 
these that the Democrats of Pennsylvania, and a portion from 
New York, resolved to throw themselves into the breach be- 
tween the discordant Whig factions, and save the government 
from that ruin and destruction which they verily believed might 
be the consequence of the madness and desperate course of 
the Clay faction. The same state of things was found to exist 
in the other House, when four Democratic Senators, from simi- 
lar motives, pursued the same course. Whilst I cannot assent 
to their reasoning, nor approve of iheir vote, I feel constrained 
to admit the purity and patriotism of their motives. When, 
however, it was discovered that the bill would probably be 
passed without their aid, these "furiosi" of the Whig party 
began to think what sort of record they were making up for 
themselves and their friend " Harry of the West," in reference 
to the campaign of 1844. The very thought that this desertion 
and abandonment of the manufacturing interest might be re- 



ISO 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS, 



memberecl in the next Presidential canvass, seemed to operate 
like a charm upon them. One by one, slow, reluctant, and 
3olemn, they came forward — Botts, Stanly, Thompson of Indi- 
ana, and many others — to give in their adhesion to the bill; but 
all solemnly declaring that they would never surrender to 
Captain Tyler — never, never, not they ! In the Senate, the 
same reluctant capitulation. Mr. Crittenden exclaimed" that 
he looked upon this as the proudest victory the Whig party had 
ever achieved ; they had conquered (not Capt. Tyler, but) them- 
selves." Never did that Senator utter a sounder truth than 
that. In the hectic glow of pretended triumph, he pronounced 
the appropriate epitaph of his own party, 

" The Whigs have conquered themselves. " 
The}- have accomplished their own destruction, by the folly and 
wickedness of their measures. The distribution bill broke 
down our national credit, and brought it so low that their party 
can scarcely borrow a dollar, even at enormous interest, either 
in this country or in Europe. How could they expect to borrow 
money, when, with no means of repayment, they were giving 
away every dollar which they were to receive from the sale of 
our vast public domain? Who would lend monej% either to an 
individual or government, who was giving away with one hand 
whilst he was borrowing with the other? 

But whilst the distribution law destroyed our national credit, 
the bankrupt law destroyed all remaining confidence between 
man and man, and thereby increased the heart-rending suffer- 
ings of the people in their pecuniary affairs. What foreign 
creditor could feel easy and indulgent to his American debtor, 
when the next packet might bring the news that he "had 
taken the benefit of the act," and that his debt was lost forever? 
What Eastern merchants would be indulgent to the Western 
ones? And how could the last be indulgent to their numerous 
customers — farmers, mechanics and laborers ? Each is afraid 
to wait, lest some one else shall get the start of him, and ex- 
haust his property; and that when lie calls for his pay, he may 
find that the debtor"has nothing more than the law allows." Nor 
will the operation of this new tariff fail greatly to increase the 
burdens and distresses of the people. It is impossible for it to 
fail to do so. How can a people, already oppressed with debts, 



A LETTER, 4«7 

iail to be injured by being- required to pny higher taxes — higher 
for his salt, his iron, his sugar, his blankets; in fact, higher for 
everything he either eats, drinks, wears, or uses ? Every man 
of plain, common understanding, must see, in the enormous 
rates imposed by this law, deep, and, I fear, lasting injury to 
the community at large ; — not to the manufacturers, not to the 
capitalists, of course: these will fatten and grow rich upon it; 
but the farmer, the planter, the mechanic, and laborer must 
suffer under its cruel and unjust exactions. To show you its 
operation since its passage, I subjoin the following from the 
New York Journal of Commerce: 

" The tariff, though a great relief from the dangers of no law, is yet ope- 
rating very severely upon merchants engaged in the foreign trade. A 
friend of ours who happened to he yesterday in the store of an importer, 
seeing a row of packages of dry goods which appeared to have been recently 
imported, inquired of the merchant as to the operation of the tariff. The 
duty of the first package, said the merchant, is ninety per cent, on the cost ; 
on the second, one hundred per cent.; on the third four hundred per cent.; 
on the fourth, fifty per cent.; and the fifth, two hundred per cent.; on the 
sixth, sixty per cent.; and on the rest fifty to seventy-five per cent. The 
duties, it will be remembered, are levied from the day of the signing of 
the act, upon goods which were ordered with the expectation of paying 
twenty per cent. Such duties, payable in cash, of course put an end to 
trade. The package which paid a duty of four hundred per cent, was fancy 
cotton handkerchiefs, with a thread of silk around them to heighten the 
color, which made them subject to the specific duty on silk by the pound. 
It is greatly to be regretted that Congress, after so long a session, should 
have come to so unsatisfactory a result. We hope, however, that, at the 
next session, Congress will modify the extravagant features of the bill, and 
bring it into a shape which will give to all kinds of business the fundamental 
basis of prosperity — permanence and steadiness." 

I know well how the leaders intend to escape from the odium 
which these measures must bring upon them. They are now 
engaged in raising a hue-and-cry against President Tyler, in 
order to draw away public attention from their own evil deeds, 
and fix the blame on some other than themselves. It was ever 
the custom of that party to do so. Who would have belie 
that in 1840, when they were making their false accusations of 
corruption against Mr. Van Buren's administration, they were 
paying out thousands to bribe men to vote against him in the 
elections? The disclosures of Stevens and Glen t worth, and 
others, have since come to light, and have astonished the na- 



488 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

tion. No man now, of any party, has the least doubt of the 
substantial truth of these disclosures, and hundreds and thou- 
sands have left their party in consequence of them. Since 
that election, too, the old United States Bank has rotted down 
upon its foundations, filling the land with the stench of its putri- 
dity and corruption. A committee appointed by the stock- 
holders to save something, if possible, for them from the wreck, 
have reported that more than half a million of dollars are un- 
accounted for, and that the vouchers for that amount have 
been suppressed or destroyed. No man doubts but these, 
vouchers, if produced, would have shed much light on the 
bribery and fraud of the last election. Again : who would have 
believed, when the itinerant rhetors of that party were travers- 
ing the country in 1840, making the loudest professions of their 
devotion to order and law, and all the institutions of our coun- 
try, that they had formed, and were cherishing a deep design 
and settled purpose, in case they were not successful in that 
election, to destroy all order, to disregard all laws, and over- 
turn our institutions by revolutionary violence? At a period 
too late for detection, or when their partisans had become mad- 
dened and infuriated like themselves, these designs of violence 
and force were publicly avowed. 

In a speech of Senator Preston, at Richmond, Virginia, he 
is reported to have said: "If Mr. Van Buren cannot be dis- 
placed through the ballot-box in November next. I, for one, am 
ready to resort to such means, as God and nature have put 
within my reach to fores a change." Mr. J. C. Graves, in a 
speech at Portsmouth, Virginia, is also reported to have said : 
" If it were not for the hope of redress through the ballot-box, 
I would here, so help me God, upon this holy altar, take an 
oath this night, to take up arms, and march with you to Wash- 
ington, and put down the present dynasty by force.'" The late 
Secretary of War, (Mr. Bell,) in a published letter to the party 
committees, to whom he was writing, said : "The appeal is now 
to reason. No feelings but those of patriotism, love of justice, 
and equal right, need be invoked as yet: though the day may 
come, when a sense of injury and oppression, of indignation 
for a country's institutions dishonored and overthrown, may 
call forth deeper passions and awaken different energies. That 



A LETTER, 188 

day I hope may not come; but if it should, I shall be ready to 
do my duty then, as well as now." Mr. Butler King, of Georgia, 
is reported to have uttered sentiments, at a public assembly in 
Maryland, which I have not now before me ; but by no means 
less violent than those of Senator Preston, Mr. Graves, and 
Secretary Bell. Another member of Congress, then and now 
quite distinguished in the Whig party, did not hesitate often and 
publicly to declare that he went for the peaceful remedy until 
November, and, if not successful, he meant to go for arms.* 1 
do not know that any of these gentlemen have ever denied the 
lan°;ua°:e here attributed to them, and I advert to them as a 
portion of the party history of the last Presidential election; 
happy if I shall ever be authorized by any of them to correct 
any of the statements here imputed to them. I must now al- 
lude to another foul and wicked plot of recent disclosure. 

Mr. Pleasants, editor of the Richmond Whig, in a letter, dated 
August 25, 1842, after describing the state of excitement for a 
few days after the election of 1840, and the conclusion amongst 
the Whigs that Mr. Van Buren had been elected, and in their 
opinion, by fraudulent voting, proceeds to state as follows : 

< : In this state of feelings, three individuals, who happened to be together, 
interchanged opinion, found an entire concurrence of sentiment among them- 
selves, and hastily arranged the heads of a plan for redressing the wrongs of 
the country, by securing the person of Mr. Van Buren previous to his inau- 
guration. Three things were to precede putting it in execution : 1. The 
election of Mr. Van Buren. 2. That he could not have been returned with- 
out the vote of Virginia. 3. Proof, carrying positive and undoubted cer- 
tainty with it, that his majority in Virginia was fraudulent. These 
preliminaries ascertained, twenty persons (men who could depend en one 
another) were to be admitted into the association, under the pledge of secreey 
and fidelity. Ten of the number were to proceed to Washington in a last. 
steamboat, giving out that their object was. a jaunt of amusement, to wit 
the approaching inauguration. It was imagined that there would be little 
difficulty in finding an opportunity in conveying Mr. Van Buren on b >ard 
by stratagem or force ; and, this done, the boat was ta run with all d (spatch 
for Albemarle Sound, previously agreed upon as the destination. There the 
ten were to be met by their associates, and Mr. Van Buren to be escorted by 
the whole into the upper districts of North Carolina— Cornwallis's most 
rebellious people in America— and whom we know to be now as staunch 
Whigs as their fathers were in 1780. Arrived there, a manifesto v, as to be 

* Mr. Botts. 



490 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

published, addressed to the American people, declaring the motives and 
objects of the act, and the vicinage assembled and appealed to. Mr. Van 
Buren himself was to be treated with the greatest possible respect and 
courtesy, compatible with sa r e custody. The manifesto was to demand a new 
election, and the restoration of the rights of the majority. The next 
Northern mail brought confirmation of a great Whig victory, and, of course, 
the plan of abduction and all thoughts of it were abandoned. Whether it 
would have been executed, if the events had fallen out, the anticipation of 
which h d to its conception, is beyond my power to know. / believe it icoud 
have been; for, although it vsras embraced in passion, that passion waa not 
likely to cool by witnessing successful frauds in the enjoyment of its spoils." 
I have no time or inclination to dwell on this nefarious and 
wicked purpose; it is submitted to the calm judgment of a 
people, who may sometimes be cajoled and imposed upon, but 
cannot be prevailed upon deliberately to sanction that violence 
which puts all law and order and humanity at defiance. Who 
does not know that, if this project had been carried out, what 
commenced in kidnapping and abduction, would have ended in 
the murder of Mr. Van Buren, in order to get rid of his testi- 
mony against the perpetrators of so foul a deed? And who 
can doubt the imminent peril and danger to which John Tyler 

• _ * 

is every day and every night exposed, from the same foul and 
demoniac spirit? This very letter was written, in order to 
show that abduction was not the proper remedy in Mr. Tyler's 
case. But when the lawless brigands of the party shall hear 
from Washington that impeachment is impracticable, what 
may not be expected from the rejected office-seeker, or the 
infuriated political desperado ? The session closed with the 
charge of treason and perjury burning on the lips of nearly 
every prominent leader of the Clay faction, well calculated to 
admonish some half-crazed- retainer that "it would be doinjr 
God service" to despatch him with the stiletto or pistol. The 
wretch who basely attempted to assassinate General Jackson 
on the steps of the capitol, had not half the encouragement to 
the perpetration of the bloody deed. 

And now, my countrymen, before I close this letter — already 
too long — permit me to ask whether you intend any longer to 
attach yourselves to a party, led en by political leaders such 
as I have described? Many of you, I know, joined that party 



A LETTER. 491 

with great hesitation : you have continued with them with great 
reluctance; you have never felt entirely satisfied, either with 
their measures or proceedings ; but you have, nevertheh 
generally gone along with them, justifying some things, it '■.- 
true, but apologizing for the most of what they have been 
doing. Who of you that marched in their processions, and 
united with them in raising the liberty-poles and the cabins in 
1840, had the slightest suspicions that such wicked and bloody 
designs were entertained as have since been fully established 
upon them? Who, that listened to their speeches, breathing 
nothing but devotion to liberty, religion and law, could have 
been made to believe that the time was so near at hand when 
you might be called on by them to rear the standard of revo- 
lution ? I know the great body of the Whig party never thought, 
never dreamed, of such results. But they are now disclosed — 
made manifest; and every man who respects order and good 
government — every man who reverences the principles of our 
holy religion — every man who loves his country, her freedom, 
her constitution, or her laws, should go no further with them. 

They have determined to rule or ruin this country ; to rule 
by fraud and bribery at elections, or by force and violence aft- r 
them; to ruin by the folly and wickedness of their measures, or 
by a new and alarming method discovered and introduced by 
them within the last few years. Throughout the turbulent ses- 
sion of the twenty-sixth Congress, it is known to every member 
of it, that often, when unable to carry their point without it, they 
would withdraw by common concert, in order to reduce the 
House below a quorum; and when a call was ordered, in order 
to force their attendance, they would drop back into their seats 
and answer their names ; thereby avoiding the responsibility of 
such revolutionary movements. For one whole night — from 
sunset to sunrise — have we seen this parly withdrawing and 
returning, marching out, and then marching back again, in 
order to weary out and bailie the lawful and constitutional legis- 
lation of the House. In the Senate, on one occasion, the 
author and founder of this new and alarming principle of pai 
action, in order to defeat the nomination of Judge Daniel of 
the Supreme Court, with a lofty (not to say insulting) air, audi- 
bly bade " good night" to the majority, and marched out of the 



492 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

chamber, with all his partisans at his heels ! Look at the con- 
tagious influence of this example in Ohio. The waters of bit- 
terness have gushed out from the high places of the nation, 
and no one can tell the length and breadth of the poisonous 
inundation. What occurred in Tennessee has no analogy. 
The case stands widely different in all its principles. If, how- 
ever, anybody shall suppose that there can be the slightest re- 
semblance, let it be remembered, that it cannot be unjust that 
he who poisons the cup should sometimes be compelled to quaff 
its deadly contents. 

But I must conclude. Gladly would I have communicated 
all these things, and many more, by personal intercourse with 
you ; but the indisposition of my family detaining me here for a 
while, some little attention to my private affairs, and the near 
approach of another session of Congress rendered it impos- 
sible. Your obedient servant, 

AARON V. BROWN. 

Washington, September 15, 1842. 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 



In the House of Representatives, 

June, 1844. 

Mr. Aaron V. Brown said that he felt constrained to ask the 
indulgence of the House whilst he submitted a few observations 
personal to himself. The near approach of the adjournment 
compelled him to take this course as the only method of vindi- 
cating himself against a certain publication in yesterday's 
Globe. He was compelled to speak of it as a newspaper pub- 
lication, because he could not, under the rules, refer to the de- 
bates in the other end of the Capitol. He begged leave to read 
the following paragraph from that paper : 

" The war was expiring. The armistice, and the interposition of great 
powers, was bringing it to a close ; and the day was at hand when the re- 
union of Texas would have come of itself, and with peace and honor, when 
this insidious scheme of sudden and secret annexation, and its miserable pre- 
texts, was fallen upon by our hapless administration. From the moment that 
scheme, and its \)retexls,first revealed itself to public view, at a public dinner 
in Virginia, in the autumn of the last year, I denounced it a* an intrigue, yol 
up for the election and to end in the disgrace of its authors, and in the de- 
feat, delay, and embarrassment of the measure which it professed to desire. 
I particularly made this denunciation to the gentleman [Mr. A. V. Brown] 
who had got the letter from General Jackson in February, 18 US, and who 
seemed to be vicariously charged with some enterprise on my humble self. 
It was at the commencement of the present session of Congress ; I 
answered him on the spot ; and, as I have no concealments, the gentleman 
referred to is at liberty to relate all that I said to him to the whole world." 

Now, sir, (said Mr. B.,) I mean to make no reply to any por- 
tion of that publication but what relates personally to myself. 
The insinuation as to the "vicarious" character which I 
" seemed" to sustain in the conversation alluded to, is wholly 



494 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

destitute of foundation. There is not one word of truth in it, 
whatever the impression of that senator [Mr. Benton] may have 
been at the time, nor the slightest pretext for it. The conver- 
sation referred to, was not confidential, nor held at any private 
interview between us. We casually fell in company, as mem- 
bers frequently do, in going to or from the Capitol to their 
boarding houses. We were walking on the public pavements, 
when the conversation chanced to turn on the subject of annex- 
ation. He advanced some of the opinions which he has since 
avowed in his speeches. The distance of our walk would not 
have allowed him to advance them all. He was vehement in 
denouncing the motives which had induced the President to 
bring forward the subject, and the secret influences which he 
believed had prompted him to do so. This latter suspicion, 
and the surprise which the general tenor of his remarks ex- 
cited, (for I had never doubted that he would be warmly for it.) 
induced me to refer to my correspondence with General Jackson 
on the subject. I made this reference with the hope that, when 
he should learn that his great friend (General Jackson) was 
so intimately connected with the effort to acquire that fine 
country, he would pause and mature the subject well before he 
threw himself in opposition to the measure. Sir, up to that 
time I had never stopped to consider how the question would 
operate on the coming Presidential election ; and my conversa- 
tion had no reference whatever to its influence that way. It 
could not have had any such reference, for I was then a warm 
and decided friend to Mr. Van Buren's nomination, and had 
done much, in my own State and elsewhere, to suppress any 
movement calculated to prevent it. This single fact, known to 
hundreds, must forever exonerate me from the imputation of 
having aided or abetted, vicariously or otherwise, in getting up 
and sustaining this Texas movement for any political pur- 
poses. 

Whatever part I have taken in getting it up, lias been very 
humble and unimportant ; but I am free to make it known to 
the world, and to defy any man or all men successfully to im- 
pugn my motives. 

Early in the winter of 1842-3, I became convinced that the 
affairs of Texas were coming rapidly to a crisis, and that she 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 405 

must find some strong support, or she could not sustain herself 
to any advantage among the independent nations of the earth. 
Hence it naturally occurred to me, that the most favorable 
period would shortly arrive for its re-annexation to the United 
States. I saw the present administration peculiarly situated. 
A President without apart}* — nay, worse than that, a President 
between two great parties, seldom sustained by either, and 
often warred upon by both. Under such circumstances, I ap- 
prehended it might be difficult to prevail on him, however 
anxious he might be personally to do so, to enter on any great 
measure such as the acquisition of Texas. Influenced by these 
opinions, in January, 1843, I addressed a letter to Gen. Jack- 
son, adverting to many or all of these circumstances, and ex- 
pressing the belief that, if his opinions were still in favor of the 
measure, as I knew they formerly were, a clear and decided 
letter from him might be useful in rousing up or sustaining the 
administration in making such a movement. In the spirit of 
ardent affection and admiration, I expressed the desire that his 
name should be connected with a great achievement like that, 
and that it would be the crowning glory of his long and eventful 
life. I give the substance and not the words of the letter. 1 
was so explicit as to the use I intended to make of his letter in 
inciting the administration to make the movement, that I think 
I desired him, if he was unwilling for it to be so used, not to 
write it. Sir, his reply was received. It was used, and I have 
reason to believe that it did much good in encouraging the 
President to enter on this great work. It has also been pub- 
lished to his countrymen ; and I rejoice to see, every day, the 
good that it is accomplishing. 

And now, Mr. Speaker, what is there in this simple narrative 
that should have called down on me the animadversion of any- 
body, especially of that distinguished Senator with whom I per- 
fectly agreed as to a Presidential candidate, and for whom I 
had ever borne the highest testimony to his patriotism and 
talents. He speaks of absolving me of all secrecy, and kindly 
informs me that I am at liberty to state all that he said to me 
on that occasion. Sir, there was no secrecy, and nothing was 
said by him which he might not well be willing that the whole 

world should know. But, let me tell you, in that respect, I 
33 



946 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

stand on as high grounds as he does, and as proudly challenge 
every insinuation against either my motives or my actions. I 
have not arraigned his in any respect, neither ought he to have 
arraigned mine. 



o 



A CARD. 



My attention has been called to Mr. A. V. Brown's statement on ihe floor 
of the House of Representative s, in which he disclaims the vicarious char- 
acter attributed to him in the affair of General Jackson's letter, and the 
conversa'ion with mys If, and in which he says, " the conversation chanced to 
fall on annexation." This is a great mistake. There was no chance about 
it. Mr. Brown accosted me coming down the steps of the Capitol, and I 
returned 1 is salutation withentiie civ'.hty ; when lie immediately began with, 
gla 1 to see me — wanted to see me — and commenced a ta'k upun Texas, as a 
thing of premeditation, and the evident cause of his wishing to see me. I, 
seeing the Texas movement thin as I see it now— a scheme, on the part of 
some of it> movers, to dissolve the Union — on the part of so ne others, as an 
intrigue for the Presidency — ai d on the pa't of others, (I only speak of piime 
movers, not the millions who follow,) s's a land speculation and a job in 
scrip, — answered abupt'y and warmly — he may tell what. But I never at- 
tributed to Mr. Brown any other ag ncy in the movement than the vicarious 
interpellation above referred to ; and. as to his and my Van Burenism being 
the same thing, I must beg to be excused. I knew that his would evaporate 
when and where it did, and said so to tome friends ; and I knew that mine 
would sand any t< st. The General Jackson letter always appeared to me to 
have been vicariously obtained ; and nothii g that Mr. Brown has now said, 

impairs, in the slightest, degree, that fir t belief. 

THOMAS H. BENTOX. 
Senate Chamber, June 13. 



House of Representatives.) 
June 14, 1844. \ 

Mr. Blair: I have certainly no disposition to become con- 
spicuous in any controversy with the Senator from Missouri, 
[Mr. Benton.] lie took occasion, in the Senate, to indulge in 
some reflections on the part 1 had taken in relation to the an- 
nexation of Texas, which 1 felt it my duty to reply to on the 
floor of the House. 

In his card of this morning, he again refers to the conversa- 
tion between us in walking from the Capitol, and insists that it 
was not by chance that the conversation turned on the subject 
of Texas, because I expressed myself glad to sec him, and was 
myself the first to give the conversation that direction. If the 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 497 

Senator's recollection is clear on these points, I will not dispute 
them at all with him ; for in those days I was ever glad to see 
him — to walk with him, and hear his conversations; and, as I 
have felt from the beginning great solicitude on the subject of 
Texas, I may have been the first to advert to it. But I again 
aver, that there was no such premeditation or design on my 
part, as he gratuitously attributes to me. But all this is not the 
question. Did I seek out that conversation, at the instance of 
any other person, and in the way of an " enterprise " on Colonel 
Benton ? That is the precise question which I sought to meet 
by an unequivocal denial. I adverted to some facts which I 
supposed would confirm that denial, and convince Mr. Benton 
that he had done me injustice in the suspicion. But he is in- 
credulous, and I am indifferent. He says (after naming the 
different lights in which he then and still views this Texas 
movement) that he answered abruptly and warmly, "he may 
tell what." I have already stated that his manner was vehe- 
ment and denunciatory of the President and those under whose 
influences he supposed him to have been acting. But I did not 
suppose, of course, that any portion of all this was cither aimed, 
at General Jackson for writing his letter, or at me for corres- 
ponding with him on the subject ; but to have been aimed en- 
tirely at others in the South, who might be supposed to be con- 
nected with the public dinner in Virginia. But I repeat, in 
justice to him, that he said nothing, now remembered, which 
he either has not since repeated, or might well be willing for 
anybody to know. 

The Senator is mistaken (if he ever can be mistaken) when he 
supposes that I have anywhere said that his and my Van Bu- 
renism were the same. I only spoke in the positive, never in 
the comparative degree. My Van Burenism, 1 thought, at all 
times, was good ; but I would have admitted, at any time, if 
he desired it, that his was better. Mine evaporated when I 
thought my duty to Democracy demanded it. His, I hope, lias 
not lasted any longer than that. Col. Benton closes his card 
by saying: "The General Jackson letter always appeared to 
me to have been vicariously obtained." I have already stated 
the circumstances connected with the correspondence between 



498 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

myself and General Jackson, and self-respect will allow mejo 
make no further allusion to it for Col. Benton's satisfaction. 

No man who knows anything of either my personal or politi- 
cal history, could be made to believe that I either could, or 
would, be willing to practice on General Jackson, under any 
sort of vicarious agency. 

Beside this, it is now nearly eighteen months since that cor- 
respondence took place. General Jackson has followed it up 
by many letters to others. He has seen all that some of his 
best friends (Col. Benton among the number) have said, and 
can say, and yet he complains of no vicarious practices upon him. 
He can discover no insidious schemes, with all their miserable 
pretexts — no indelible stains of national dishonor, in these 
efforts to acquire the noblest country upon this continent. 
Having embarked in this great work, he is going on bravely 
with it. He would have been glad, I know he would, if Col. 
Benton could have thought it right to co-operate with him. 
But whilst he has never pretended to arraign Colonel Benton's 
motives for the course which he has doubtless felt it his duty to 
pursue, he and those friends who do co-operate with him are 
entitled to a like exemption from censure. 

Respectfully, 

A. V. BROWN. 



TO THE PUBLIC AT LARGE, 

Anl to the Constituents of the Hon. John Quincy Adams in 

particular. 



The apology for this address is to be found in the speeches 
of Mr. Adams at Boston, at Weymouth Landing, and at 
Bridgewater, in the State of Massachusetts. In these speeches 
he has assailed me with a wantonness and bitterness which can 
find no justification in any conduct of mine towards him. 
Whether addressing the young men of Boston, chiefly against 
General Jackson, or his constituents at Weymouth Landing 
against Mr. Charles J. Ingersoll, or at Bridgewater against 
President Polk, he repeats his abuse of me with a frequency 
and malignity, altogether discreditable to any man of his age 
and station in society. No language which the smallest degree 
of self-respect will allow me to use, can even approximate the 
grossness of the epithets which he has been pleased to employ 
on all the occasions to which I have referred. These speeches 
were so carefully prepared, and have been so extensively cir- 
culated through the public press, that I do not feel willing to 
let them pass off as the ravings of an irritable old man, whose 
infirmities are rather to be pitied than resented. 

Mr. Adams is, indeed, venerable for his years; but he has 
not and will not retire from the strife of public affairs. He 
remains within the arena, a knight in full armor, clutching his 
spear, and assailing, with fiendish malignity, all who come 
near him. What right, then, has he to expect infirmities of 
senility to protect him from the blows and wounds of the 
tournament? 

But I proceed at once to Mr. Adams's complaints against me. 



500 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

This seems to be the publication of General Jackson's letter to 
me of February, 1843, in favor of the annexation of Texas. 
In his Boston address he sets out the whole letter; but takes 
the greatest exception to the following extract from it : 

" Soon after my election in 1829, it was made known to me by Mr. Erving, 
formerly our Mil ister ;.t the Court of Madrid, that, whilst at that court, he 
had laid the foundation of a treaty with Spain for the cetsion of the Flor- 
idas, and the settl nv nt of the boundary of Louisiana, fixing the western 
limit of the latter at Rio Grande, agreeably to the understanding of France; 
that he had written home to our government for powers to complete and 
sign the negotiation ; but that, instead of receiving such authority, the nego- 
tiation was taken out of his hands and transferred to Washington, and a 
new treaty was there concluded, by which the Sjbine, and not the Rio 
Grande, was recognized, and established as the boundary of Louisiana. Find- 
ing that these statements were true, and that our government did really give 
up that important territory, when it was at its option to reta ; n it, I was filled 
with astonishment. The right to the territory was obtained from France. 
Spain stood ready to acknowledge it to the Rio Grande, and yet the autho- 
rity asked by our Minister to insert the true boundary was not only withheld, 
hut in lieu of it, a limit was adopted depriving us of the whole vast country 
lying between the two rivers." 

Mr. Adams, in commenting on this part of General Jackson's 
letter, inquires, "in what language of composure and decency, 
can I say to you that there is, in this bitter and venomous 
charge, not one single word of truth; that it is, from beginning 
to end, grossly, glaringly, and wilfully false?" What terrible 
words ! and what a towering fit of passion seems to come over 
him at once! Surely this must be an entirely new and unex- 
pected charge — one which Mr. Adams had never heard of be- 
fore, and now hearing, is filled with honest and just indignation ! 
But no such thing. It had been made against him as far back 
as 1820, and published to the world more than fifteen years be- 
fore Gen. Jackson's letter was either written or published : not 
made against him then by Gen. Jackson, but by that man that 
once foisted him into the Presidency against the will of a be- 
trayed and insulted people — by Mr. Clay, whose election he 
was trying to secure by these very speeches. From a letter 
written at Washington by Mr. Clay, dated IGth April, 1820, to 
a then friend in Kentucky, and published in the United State3 
Telegraph of August 2d, 1828, I make the following extract: 



ANNEXATION OP TEXAS. 501 

"There is a rumor in the c : ty which will astoni li you, in regard to the 
conclu ion of that (the Fl rick) treaty. Jt has been as>.M!;,| by e m mb r 
of Congress, a« coming from high authoriiy, thai prior to th coticlusi n of 
the tr aty, it was known t i Mr. Ada n s th .1 w • could have obtained more 
than was conveyed to us — hat is, that the Spanish negotiator was all wed 
by his hi tructions to grant us more, but that le 9 was taken, because the 
Spani h Minist r dec'ared, if he went up to his irjstr i< tione, he s' ould be 
afraid of some personal i jury upon hi- return home. Wli t will yo i in the 
west tl ink of the wisdom of that pi icy which which consents to surre. dejr 
an important part of our territory from such a motive V 

Here is the first charge made against Mr. Adams for surren- 
dering up Texas in that negotiation. Jt was made by Mr. 
Adams's most especial friend — that friend to whom he stands 
solely indebted for the highest office which he ever filled. It 
was published in 18:28 ; and Mr. Adams's eyes have doubtless 
met it a thousand times. Does he deny it? Did he get up at 
Boston and deny it — at Weymouth Landing, at Bridge water, 
or anywhere else? No, never, that I have heard of. Did he 
give Mr. Clay the lie for uttering it, as he has done General 
Jackson? Mr. Clay was then his Secretary of State, living 
daily on his bounty. Did he send for him and say to him, 
You have slandered my good name — you have ruined the 
inheritance of my children, and you must leave my cabinet 
immediately? No such thing. This new cause of quarrel, 
like the old question of veracity, was adjourned over to some 
period more propitious to calm investigation. 

Mr. Clay, then, was Mr. Adams's firbt accuser of dereliction 

of dutv in the negotiation of the Florida treat v. He accuses 
him by name — on the authority of a member of Congress, who 
is said to have got it from one high in authority. He states in 
his letter that it was known to Mr. Adams that we could have 
obtained more than was coin-eyed to us. He was writing on 
other subjects, but stepped aside to denounce Mr. Adams for 
surrendering an important part of our territory from improper 
motives. 

Contrast the time and circumstances under which General 
Jackson allnded to the same dereliction of duty. He was writing 
on the re-annexation of Texas; the manner in which it had 
been lost lay directly in his way. Mr. Adams's name is not 
mentioned, and the whole matter is alluded to with a forbear- 
ance not to be observed at all in Mr. Clay's letter. 



502 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



I do not pretend to insist that the silence of Mr. Adams, under 
the charges of Mr. Clay, was conclusive evidence of his guilt; 
but I do maintain that after he has submitted to it uncom- 
plainingly for so many years, he has no right to affect such 
horror at its repetition in a more gentle form by Gen. Jackson, 
nor to pour out upon him, nor upon myself, for publishing it, 
such a torrent of vulgar epithets and billingsgate abuse. What 
ought he to have done ? What would all men have been glad 
to see him do on the appearance of General Jackson's letter to 
me? He ought, if innocent, to have addressed the public, 
stating that Mr. Clay had made this accusation first against 
him; that he perceived that General Jackson had fallen into the 
same error ; and then have produced the evidence of his inno- 
cence. He saw, on the face of General Jackson's letter, that 
his information was derived from Mr. Erving, that it was com- 
municated in writing, and that that writing was in my posses- 
sion. Calling on me, he could have inspected Mr. Erving's 
communication, and thus ascertained whether General Jackson 
or Mr. Erving was to be censured for the accusation. Such a 
course would have been obvious enough to anybody but to John 
Quincy Adams. Instead of pursuing it, he pretermits his 
friend, Mr. Clay, altogether; pours out all his malignant fury on 
General Jackson, and falsely (not to say meanly) asserts that 
Mr. Erving's communications " have been carefully suppressed 
from the public, and from any access to them by me." Did he 
e er ask either myself or Mr Ingersoll for an inspectionof them ? 
Did he request any copy of them, of either Mr. Ingersoll or 
myself? How, then, could he venture to say they had been 
suppressed from any access to him ? 

But let us take another step in the examination of this sub- 
ject. Mr. Adams seems especially displeased with me for 
a note which I caused to be appended to General Jackson's 
letter, which he quotes as follows : 

"Tliat this boundary (the Rio del Norte) could have been obtained, was 
doubtless the belief of our Minister in Spain ; but the offer of the Spanish 
government was probably the Colorado — certainly a line far west of the 
Sabine." 

Why he should have been so much disploased with this note, 
is diflicult of explanation. If General Jackson's letter accused 
him of too much, this note lessened the amount. It was, there- 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. "><>•'{ 

fore, mitigatory in its purposes and tendency, and bore no marks 
indicative of a disposition to assail him. I had requested the 
opinions of Gen. Jackson on the subject of our acquiring a fine 
and noble country. I wanted these opinions to rouse up and 
sustain the administration of Mr. Tyler in making the attempt. 
But no part of that purpose was to prejudice Mr. Adams, He 
was not in all my thoughts. It is a little singular, on this part 
of the case, that a distinguished Senator of this country should 
think my object was to ruin Mr. Van Buren, whilst Mr. Ail a ins is 
sure it was to destroy him. Both gentlemen are equally mista- 
ken. I knew General Jackson was writing in the absence of Mr. 
Erving's communications, after the lapse of many years; and 
as he had put the communication at my disposal, I was sure that 
he would take no exception to any correction of his statements 
which an examination of the papers might furnish. I looked 
into them sufficiently to be satisfied that General Jackson was 
substantially correct in reference to the Erving statements, 
with, as I supposed, one solitary exception; that was in his 
having used the words Rio Grande, instead of the Colorado. 
Whether he had so mistaken the names, was not a matter of 
close examination and scrutiny; it was enough for me that it 
seemed somewhat doubtful. I gave the benefit of that doubt to 
Mr. Adams, thereby diminishing the amount of country surren- 
dered, by so much as lay beyond the Colorado. Does this look 
as if I had joined in a base conspiracy against an individualj(Mr. 
Adams) for as profligate a public purpose as appears on the 
pages of history? His perpetual reiteration of complaint on 
this point induces the belief that the true cause of his displea- 
sure arises from the fact that, by the correction, I cut him off 
from the only quibble on which he expected to defend himself 
against either the charges of Air. Clay or General Jackson. 
He knew that he had made a bad treaty, when he mighl have 
made a much better one — that he had surrendered the whole, 
when he might have saved at least two-thirds of thai noble 
country. In other words, that he had taken the Sabine, when he 
might certainly have gottento the Colorado ; and henee it offends 
him so much that I should have corrected the probable mistake 
of General Jackson, in saying the Rio Grande, insteadof the Rio 
Colorado, thereby cutting him off from all plea and apology for 



504 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

thus sacrificing the .South, and dismembering his country : For 
I now maintain the opinion confidently, that, with the correc- 
tion of my note published with it, and thereby made a part of 
it, so far as it was accusatory of Mr. Adams, the statements 
made both by Mr. Clay in 1820, and General Jackson in 1813, 
are fully and substantially sustained by the communications of 
Mr. Erving and other concurring testimony. 

Mr. Adams proves it himself — out of his own mouth; at 
least under his own hand and signature ; aye, Mr. Adams 
proves his own guilt, in his letter to Mr. Forsyth. lie says : 
"It is too well known, and they (the Spanish government) 
will not dare to deny it, that Mr. Onis's last instructions autho- 
rized him to concede much more than he did ; that those 
instructions had been prepared by Mr. Pizarro; that, after the 
appointment of Marquis de Casa Yuijo to the ministry, they 
were by him submitted to the King's Council, and, with their full 
sanction, transmitted to Mr. Onis ; that, both in relation to 
these grants of land in Florida, and to the western boundary, 
the terms which he obtained were far within the limits of his 
instructions." Now, here is proof, direct and positive, covering 
the substance of the charge against him. It comes from under 
his own hand, and seals his lips forever against denying the 
charge of Mr. Clay and General Jackson. He says, officially 
and expressly, that " both in relation to the grants of lands in 
Florida and Ike western boundary, the terms which he (Don 
Onis) obtained were far within the limits of his instructions," 
And yet, in the face of this letter, he tells his constituents at 
Boston (who ought never to excuse him for the imposture) that 
"when, in 1819, 1 wrote to Mr. Forsyth that we knew that Mr. 
Onis could, without violating his instructions, have conceded 
more than he did, it was not in reference to the western boundary, 
but to the grants of lands by the Spanish government." What 
inveterate obstinacy ! what unblushing falsification of his own 
letter ! Well, I now produce the letter. It says expressly, 
" both in the grant of lands and the western boundary ;" whilst in 
his speech he declares to his young friends at Boston, •' it was 
not in reference to the western boundary." I hold up both of 
these pictures before the young men of Boston; and, if they 
do not see a direct, positive, and palpable inconsistency, not to 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 505 



o 



use a harder term, then I shall conclude they are young indeed ! 
This covers the very point in controversy. It is the very sub- 
stance and marrow of both Mr. Clay's and General Jackson's 
charge against him. Mr. Clay says: "It was known to Mr. 
Adams that we could have obtained more than was conveyed 
to us ; that is, that the Spanish negotiator was allowed by his 
instructions to grant us more," &c. 

Well, Mr. Adams, being his own witness, proves thai not 
only did he know, but that the then Spanish Minister knew, and 
dare not deny, the same fact. Little did Mr. Adams think that 
he would have himself to dure in 1844, what he said the Span- 
ish ministry dare not do in 1820. 

But I will advert to some further admissions of Mr. Adams, 
of a most extraordinary character. In his Boston speech, he 
tells his young friends that " the powers, however, transmitted 
to Mr. Onis, were not at first sufficient to bring the negotiation 
to a successful close. They were from time to time enlarged, 
until Mr. Hyde de Neuville, the French Minister, told me that 
he had seen them, and they were unlimited; and Onis himself 
told me that he could cede all Mexico, but added. I might be 
well assured he would not do that." 

A little further on, in the same speech, Mr. Adams says : 

" Mr. Onis published a pamphlet for his own vindication, (about the Flo- 
rida treaty,) and to justify bimself, took our ground in (be controversy, and 
insisted that all that he had obtained within the line of the Rio del Norte, 
was a cession by the Unite! States to Spain. He did not pret nil that his 
instructions would have warranted him in conceding more." 

Take this statement of Hyde de Neuville and of Don Onis, 
as furnished by Mr. Adams himself, and who can doubt that 
the Spanish government had, at last, though reluctantly, come 
up in their instructions to our own claim of boundary to the 
Del Norte. De Neuville says he had seen them, and they were 
unlimited. Don Onis declared he could convey all Mexico, if 
he chose to do so. Well, in this connection, let me now pre- 
sent you with the statement of James W. Breedlove, Esq., 
formerly Vice Consul at New Orleans for the Republic of .Mex- 
ico. The statement it contains is quite as satisfactory as the 
statements relied on by Mr. Adams as to the extent of the 
powers given to the Spanish minister : 



506 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

"AYashington City, April 9, 1844. 

" I was the Mexican Vice Consul for a portion of the years 1829, 1H30 and 
1831. In the course of the latter year, Senor Don Martinez arrived at New 
Orleans from Mexico, bringing with him the commission of Mexican Consul, 
and instructions from the Mexican government to me, directing the consu- 
late to be handed over to him. The numerous consultations necessarily 
occurring, brought about an intimacy between Don Martinez and myself, 
which was continued up to the time that he was appointed Minister from 
Mexico to this governm°nt. In the course of our free and frequent conver- 
sations, the subject of the Florida treaty of 1819 was often introduced. In 
the course of those conversations, Senor Don Martinez informed me that he 
was Secretary of Legation to the Spanish embassy to this government at the 
time that the Chevalier Don Louis De Onis was the accredited Minister ; 
that he enjoyed that Minister's full confidence, and had a full knowledge of 
his instructions from the King, their master ; that Don Onis was instructed 
to negotiate a treaty which, if necessary and demanded, should fix the Rio 
Bravo Del Norte as the western boundary line ; that, in opening the nego- 
tiation with Mr. Adams, the American negotiator, he claimed the Sabine as 
the boundary line, but without any expectation of its being agreed to ; but, 
upon finding that it was not very strenuously objected to by Mr. Adams, he 
pressed the claim to that line, and succeeded in establishing it in the treaty. 
Don Martinez spoke of it exultingly, as having obtained an advantage in the 
treaty beyond anything which his government expected ; and the result 
was, that it had secured a large and valuable country which had fallen into 
the possession of the Republic of Mexico. These conversations were fre- 
quently held, and were not considered confidential by either of us ; and, 
accordingly, I have frequently retailed them in New Orleans, and recently 
here. Jas. W. Breedlove." 

Here I might rest my defence, and that of General Jackson, 
against any imputation made by Mr. Adams. But as he has 
in his speeches declared Gen. Jackson's statement to be false — 
grossly, glaringly, and wilfully false, and that I knew them to 
be so when I published his letter, I must beg to be indulged in 
a further examination of the particulars which make up this 
wholesale and vulgar denunciation. He says they are false 
even in the name of the individual from whom the information 
is pretended to be derived. Here he resorts to a contemptible 
criticism on the spelling of the name of our then Minister to 
Spain. General Jackson writes it Erwin, instead of Ervhig; 
and this is made the foundation of one of his charges of false- 
hood. But what would he think if I were to greet him with the 
vulgar epithet of liar and slanderer, by telling him that Mr. 



ANNEXATION OP TEXAS. 507 

Aaron Vail Brown never did receive or publish any letter from 
General Jackson accusatory of him; that it was Mr. Aaron 
Venablc Brown? But no matter about that. He proceeds to 
deny that Mr. Erving ever did make known to General Jack- 
son any such facts as his letter asserts that he did. Let it be 
borne in mind that General Jackson never did come forward as 
the accuser of Mr. Adams of dereliction of duty in negotiating 
the Florida treaty; nor did I ever present any letter of his in 
that light. He pretended, on the face of his letter, only to give 
the information (from memory) which he had received from our 
Minister in Spain. If that information was correct, it was then 
a question only between Mr. Adams and him. What that in- 
formation was, has been concealed neither from Mr. Adams 
nor the public. All the material and important parts of that 
statement appeared during the last spring in the Richmond 
Enquirer, with comments, over the signature of "Randolph of 
Roanoke," written by one of the most vigorous writers of the 
age. To these I must necessarily refer (for they are too long 
for insertion here) all who have a single doubt on the subject 
under examination. I must beg permission, however, to insert 
the following : 

"The next con6rmatory testimony I shall offer, is that of ]\lr. George W. 
Erving (the former Minister to Spain) himself. If I am rightly advised, he 
indignantly threw up his commission soon after he was apprized of the terms 
of the treaty, and before its ratification by Spain, and was in Washington 
about the date of Mr. Clay's letter. In the statement he afterwards drew 
up in relation to that treaty, and presented to General Jackson, he places 
Mr. Adams in a most unenviable position. From this document, now before 
me, I will furnish you from time to time with copious and pungent extracts ; 
but for the present I have only leisure to quote the following summary, 
which seems germane enough to the matter in hand. Commenting on Mr. 
Adams's conduct, he says : 

" ' He had a distinct proposal from Pizarro,' (the Spanish Secretary for 
Foreign Affairs) ' of a boundary between the Sabine and the Colorado. He 
had repeated assurances from the Minister of the United Stairs at Madrid, 
of the earnest disposition of the Spanish Minister to conclude a treaty there. 
He had abundant proofs of that Minister's sincerity, and finally of his une- 
quivocal INTENTION TO AGREE ON THE COLORADO AS A BOUNDARY, ON THE 
TERMS PROPOSED BV THE AMERICAN MINISTER. 

"With all this before him, Mr. Adams agreed with Onis on the Sabine a 
a limit, thus ceding to Spain the whole of the territory in that quarter, which 



508 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



she pretended to have any right to posses?; ceding, indeed, every inch of 
that territ try that the United States had power to c?de — since the territory 
as far as the Sabine was actually in possesession of, an 1 made part of tho 
State of Louisiana.' " 

Mr. Adams, in his Boston address, attempts to account for 
the strange conduct here attributed to him, by throwing the 
blame on Mr. Monroe. He says that if Gen. Jackson had given 
an opinion against the western boundary as agreed on in the 
treaty, Mr. Monroe would still have persisted in making the 
offer. He was earnestly intent on the acquisition of the Flori- 
das, and of indemnity for the spoliations, "and was more than 
indifferent to any acquisition west of the Sabine." How strange, 
how incredible the story ! Indifferent, and more than indiffer- 
ent, (hostile, we must suppose,) to any acquisition west of 
the Sabine ! Why, then, all that tedious and protracted nego- 
tiation with Spain about it? Why did he not instantly com- 
mand Mr. Erving to give over further negotiation about the 
Colorado and the Rio Del Norte, and close on the Sabine im- 
mediately? Nay, more ; why did he not tell Mr. Adams, nego- 
tiating right at his door, to give it up at once, falling back in 
his claim on the western boundary of Louisiana? Why, let 
me ask, was not this incredible story told in the life-time of Mr. 
Monroe ? 

Mr. Adams had been accused and severely censured in his 
life-time; yet Mr. Monroe never stepped forward, with the no- 
ble frankness of his nature, to relieve his persecuted Secretary. 

Nay, still more : such a defence becomes totally inadmissible 
since the publication of Mr. C. J. Ingersoll's reply to the re- 
peated assaults of Mr. Adams. In that reply he inserts a letter 
written by Mr. Adams to Mr. George Graham, dated the 2d 
June, 1818 — mark the date, how nearly to that of the treaty — 
written, too, by the order of Mr. Monroe, in which we find the 
following : 

" The President wishes you to proceed with all convenient sp?cd to that 
place, unless, as is not improbable, you should, in the |a-ogress of the jour- 
ney, learn that they have abandoned or be in driven from it. Should they 
have removed to Matagorda, or any other place north of the Rio Bravo, and 
within the territ >ry claimed by the United States, you will repair thither, with- 
out, however, exposing yourself to be captured by any Spanish military force. 
When arrived, you will, in a suitable manner, make known to the chief or 



ANNEXATION OP TEXAS. 509 

leader of the expedition your authority from the government of the United 
Stales, and express the surprise with which the President has seen posses* 
sion thus taken, without authority from the United States, of a / /(/<•.■ within 
their territorial limits, and upon which no lawful settlement can be made without 
their sanction. You will call upon him explicitly to avow under wh X national 
authority they profess to act, and take care that due warning be given to 
whole body that the place isicithin the United State?, who will suffer no per- 
manent settlement to be mads there under any authority other than their own." 

On this letter, Mr. Ingersoll justly remarks : 

" Thus it appears that in June, 1818, at the very time when the Florida 
treaty was in full negoiiation, the United States extended, (with all Mr. 
Monroe's indifference,) not to the Sabine only, where Mr. Adams put a stop 
to them — not only to the Colorado, where Mr. Erving thinks it would have 
been easy to have settled their limits — nor yet even to the Bravo, the utter- 
most claim of northern Texas ; but even north of it, which must have carried 
Louisiana far beyond those ancient Santa Fe settlements, of which Colonel 
Benton has spoken so emphatically in his recent speeches — Thomas Hart 
Bentona, as Mr. Adams, with precision, denominates that gentleman, some- 
what infected, saith Mr. Adams, with the thirst for Tex-ass, which has be- 
come an epidemic fever raging to a great extent. 

"|Now, the argument of all Mr. Adams's denunciation of General Jack- 
son, of Mr. Tyler, of Mr. Polk, of Mr. Calhoun, of Governor McDuflie, of 
Mr. Brown, of Mr. Erving, and of me, the whole argument of not less than 
a volume of print, the result of all his midsummer's night dreams, is that 
the United States had no right to Texas beyond the Sabine; that they made 
no claim to Texas to the Colorado; that they never dreamed of Texas as far 
as the Bravo; and that as to the Santa Fe settlement on ihe north of that 
river, it would have been the grossest injustice and absurdity to make any 
pretension to them. Mr. Adams has been in the habit, I have understood, of 
terming General Jackson a Tennessee barbarian. In his Braintree philip- 
pics, the General's double-dealing, imposture, folly, ignorance, profligacy, 
mendacity— in a word, his villany— in this Texas affair are painted in the 
blackest colors. He is called Tiberius Ca-sar, Louis XI of Rrance, Ferdi- 
nand the Calholic, of Spain; robber, thief, hickory hero, and the like; Me- 
dusa with a gorgon's head; Ate, hot from hell; Alaric, the pesl of nations; 
Attila, the scourge of God, are conjured into Adams's jargon, the whole 
strain of elaborated allegation, with what he pronounces overwhelming 
proo's, that, m Texas never did belong to the Unite! States, and never was 
claimed by them, it. was monstrous injustice to Mexico for (Jen ral Jackson, 
by what Mr. Adams calls his God-defying villany, to ro'> tint country from 
Mexico; audit is monstrous traduction of Mr. Adams for General Jackson 
to express his astonishment that our government ^\ ' it up by the Florida 
treaty. General Jackson is expressly compared by Mr. Adams to a horse- 
thief for doing so; and setting forth the defence of this horse-thief, as Mr- 



510 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

Adams said he heard him make it in Boston, he pronouncs it a much better 
justification for stealing the horse than General Jackson has for what Mr- 
Adams calls stealing Texas from Mexico. What are we to think, then, of 
the statesman, or honest man, or any man, who, after spending a whole 
summer, with his unquestionably superior advantages, and the best opportu- 
nities of making good his case, is thus easily convicted, by the records of his 
own department by a letter under his own signature, every line of which 
bears intrinsic evidence of Mr. Monroe's wary patriotism, and of Mr. Adams's 
peculiar diplomacy? And what shall we say of that sting at a benefactor 
who warmed bim in his bosom, when Mr. Adams writes of Mr. Monroe that 
he was more than indifferent as to Texas — Mr. Monroe, whom Mr. Adams 
hides behind, to cover him from the charge] 'Write a letter of instruc- 
tions,' said President Monroe to Secretary Adams, 'to Geo. Graham, to hasten 
forthwith to Texas. Let him make his first stopping-place at Galveston, 
far beyond the Sabine; thence let him follow the intruders to Matagorda, 
which is at the mouth of the Colorado; if he does not find them there, let him 
go to the Bravo; and if there, or at any other place to the north of it within 
the territory claimed by the United States, make known that no settlement 
can be made there without their sanction, for the place is within the United 
States, who will suffer no settlement other than their own.'' Is this the lan- 
guage of a President who was more than indifferent as to Texas! Is this 
the memory Mr. Adams should sully for want of patriotism! Far beyond San 
Antonio, reaching almost to Matamoras and Monterey in the south, to Albu- 
querque and Santa Fe in the north, Mr. Monroe insisted that neither 
Frenchman nor Spaniard, nor Don Onis, the representative of the King of 
Spain, nor the Viceroy of Mexico, nor Joseph Bonaparte, should be suffered 
to put a foot, nor any other, without authority from our government. Yet 
does Mr. Adams not only take high umbrage at any expression of astonish- 
ment that he should, six months after, have surrendered all those magnifi- 
cent regions, but he denounces as worse than a horse-thief the President 
who reclaimed them, and lashes as a rascal round the world the individual 
who ventures to publish Mr. Erving's argument, that at least as far as the 
Colorado, we might, by the Florida treaty, have established our title to Texas, 
if not to the Bravo." 

There is but one other topic discussed by Mr. Adams in these 
various speeches to his constituents, which I desire to notice, 
and with that I shall close this address. I allude to his alle- 
gation, formerly as well as now made, that the Florida treaty 
was shown to General Jackson, and that he approved of it. 
Much has been said on this subject by several of the newspa- 
pers of the day, particularly by the Globe and Kendall's Expo- 
sitor. There is, in the latter, a review and exposure of all that 
Mr. Adams has said on this point, so direct and lucid that I 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 511 

submit it to your consideration, with the solitary remark, that 
I have no faith nor confidence in the alleged diary of Mr. 
Adams. He did not and would not produce it at the proper 
time, when everything he ought to have held dear to him 
was at issue. If genuine, it does not sustain him ; if a forgery 
of subsequent fabrication, it is another melancholy proof that 
great attainments are not always accompanied by virtue. 

From Kendall's Expositor. 
The National Intelligencer, of the 12th instant, contains a long addi 
of John Quincy Adams, delivered 'at a meeting of the Boston Whig Young 
Men's Club, o;i the evening of the 7th instant," defending his own course 
in the negotiation of 1819, when Texas was ceded to Spain, and availing 
General Jackson in no measured terms. 

On its face this production bears evidence that while the snows which rest 
around the temple of this aged man have, in some degree, paralyzed his mental 
powers, they have but kindled the fires of his malignant heart into a brighter 
flame. The diabolical spirit which breathes through this address, presents 
to the imagination a hoary-headed sinner sinking unrepentant into the grave, 
already beginning to feel the pangs of " that death which never dies," and 
attempting, with impotent rage, to hurl back upon a fortunate rival, whose 
success has been his disgrace, and whose glory his shame, a portion of that 
fire with which he is already tormented. 

"Grossly, glaringly, wilfully false.'' — Such are the epithets this '■ arch 
angel fallen " bestows upon statements of Andrew Jackson, and attempt- 
to show it by counter-statements, in themselves "grossly, glaringly, and 
wilfully false," capping the climax by proving his own mendacity. 

"At some time more propitious to calm consideration," as Mr. Clay said 
when he promised to expose Mr. Adams's conduct at Ghent, we may, if some 
one else does not, make a formal reply to this long-studied and ino.-t wicked 
tissue of petty malignity, false as-ertion and shameless misrepresentation. 
For the present, we shall content ourself with proving Mr. Adam* a liar "by 
his own testimony! 

On the 7th of May, 1836, while a discussion involving the treaty of 1819 
was going on in the House of Representatives, Mr. Adams is thus reported, 
viz: 

" He mentioned also another fact : the present chief magistrate of the 
United States being in the city at the time, Mr. A. was directed to take the 
treaty to him and ask his opinion about it, and it was approved of by thai 
gentleman." 

On being applied to for information on the subject, President 

Jackson said he had no recollection of having been consulted, 

and thought Mr. Adams must be under some mistake. Thil 

was stated in the Globe. Mr. Adams noticed the statement in 

34 



512 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

the House, repeating the assertion with minute particulars, 
and with his own hand revised the report of his remarks for 
publication. From that revised report we take the following- 
extract, viz : 

"The treaty was signed on the 22d February, 1819, and he presumed it 
was in the recollection of many members of the House, that Gen. Jackson 
was at that time in this city, as that was the celebrated session during 
which his proceedings in the Seminole war were subjects of deliberation in 
both Houses of Congress ; and General Jackson was here during the con- 
sideration of that subject, and was here at the time of the conclusion of the 
treaty. 

" But to come to the precise point. After the treaty had been framed, 
and ready to receive the signatures of the contracting parties, but before 
there was any obligation upon our part to sign it, by the express direction of 
Mr. Monroe, he (Mr. A.) took the treaty, drawn up as it was, to General 
Jackson, not as to the military commander of the army of the United States, 
but as to a highly distinguished citizen of the United States, whom, being 
here at the time, the then President of the United States thought proper to 
consult upon a subject of such great importance. He took the treaty to 
him at his lodgings, which were in a house at that time kept, he believed 
by Mr. Strother. He took and delivered that treaty into the hands of Gen- 
eral Jackson, with the particular request from Mr. Monroe, that he would 
read it over, and give his opinion upon it. He would state further, that 
General Jackson kept the treaty some time, possibly not more than one 
day, but he kept it a sufficient time to form a deliberate opinion upon it, and 
that he (Mr. A.) called upon him after a day or two, and that he returned 
the treaty with his approbation of that particular boundary." 

The Globe replied to this specific statement, and proved it 
false in all its circumstances by the following testimony, viz : 

By an official note from Mr. Adams to the Spanish Minister* 
dated 13th February, 1819, it was shown that a counter-pro- 
ject for a treaty was that day sent to that Minister. 

By an official note from Mr. Adams to the same Minister, 
dated 19th of February, 1819, it was proved that "a copy of 
the treaty, as definitively drawn up and acceded to by the Pres- 
ident," was then sent, " several of the modifications proposed 
on the part of Mr. de Onis" having been agreed to. 

By extracts from the National Intelligencer, dated the 23d 
and 25th February, 1819, it was proved that the treaty was 
communicated to the Senate on the 22d February, and was 
unanimously ratified by that body. 

By an extract from the National Intelligencer, it was proved 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 5l;{ 

that General Jackson left Washington on a tour to the North 
on the 11th February, 1819. 

By extracts from the Baltimore Patriot, Philadelphia Frank- 
lin Gazette, New York Columbian, and Niles' Register, it 
proved that he arrived in Baltimore on the evening of the 11th J 
that he left Baltimore for Philadelphia on the morning of the 
14th; that he arrived in Philadelphia on the evening of the 
15th; that on the 20th he arrived in New York; that on the 
22d he visited the navy-yard at Brooklyn ; that on the 23d he 
was honored with a public dinner inNew York ; and that on the 
27th he was expected in Baltimore on his return to Washing- 
ton, although he had not arrived when Niles' article was 
written. 

Thus was it established, beyond controversy, that while the 
treaty was still passing between the negotiators in projects 
and counter-projects, General Jackson left the city, and did 
not return until it was agreed upon, reduced to form, signed, sent 
to the Senate, and ratified. It was evident, therefore, that Mr. 
Adams's story, garnished off with so many particulars to make 
it plausible, was a sheer fabrication. He could never have 
shown the treaty to General Jackson at all; for the General 
was not at Washington after it was put in form until it was 
ratified. 

The old man malignant, notwithstanding this exposure, per- 
sisted in saying that he was substantially correct, referring t<» 
his diary for proof, but stating that it was not in the city, and 
he could not then quote from it. 

After eight years silence, he has had the hardihood to pub- 
lish extracts from the diary; and what do they prove? Tkey 
prove, as clear as day, his own reckless fabrication and falsehoo I ! 
Read them : 

" Monday, Feb. 1, 1819. — Called upon the President, and had a conver- 
sation with him upon this renewal of negotiation with the Spanish minister. 
There are various symptoms that, if we do come to an arrangement] there 
will be a large party in the country dissatisfied with our concession from the 
Rio del Norte to the Sabine, on the Gulf of Mexico. He desired a 
see and converse with General Jackson on the Bubject, and to ask c< B- 
dentially his opinion.'' 

'• February 2, 1819.— I called on General Jackson, and mentioned in 
confidence to him the state of the negotiation with tl e Spanish mis 



514 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

and what we had offered him for the western houndary, and asked his opinion 
of it. He thought the friends of the administration would be satisfied with 
it, hut that their adversaries would censure it severely, and make occasion 
for opposition from it. He thought even that it would bring us again in 
collision with the Indians, whom we are removing west of the Mississippi. 
But as we had no map at hand, I could not give him a precise idea of the 
proposed line, by mere description, and he promised to call at my house to- 
morrow morning at ten, and look it over upon the map." 

February 3, 1819. — General Jackson came to my house this morning, 
and I showed him the boundary line which has been offered to the Spanish 
minister, and that which we propose to offer, upon Melish's map. He said 
there were many individuals who would take exception to our receding so 
far from the boundary of the Rio del Norte, which we claim as the Sabine, 
and the enemies of the administration would certainly make a handle of it 
to assail them ; but the possession of the Floridas was of so great impor- 
tance to the southern frontier of the United States, and so essential even to 
their safety, that the vast majority of the nation would be satisfied with the 
western boundary, as we propose, if we obtain the Floridas. He showed 
me on the map the operations of the British force during the last war, and 
remarked that while the mouths of the Florida rivers should be accessible to 
a foreign naval force, there would be no security for the southern part of the 
United States." 

Reader, now look back, and see what Mr. Adams asserted in 

1836. 

He said Gen. Jackson was in Washington at the time the 
treaty was concluded, which was on the 22d February, 1819. 

The extracts from his diary show that he was here on the 1st, 

2d and 3d of February. 

He asserted that," by the direction of Mr. Monroe, he took the 

treat,/, DRAWN UP AS IT WAS, to General Jackson, #c." 

The extracts prove that he took no treaty to General Jackson at 

all, and showed him no paper concerning it, except Melish's map ! 
He asserted, that " he took the treaty to him at his lodgings, 

which were in a house at that time kept, he believed, by Mr. 

Strother." The extracts prove that he took neither treaty nor 

paper to him — not even Melisli's map. 

He asserted that " he took and delivered that treaty into the 

hands of General Jackson.'''' The extracts prove that he neither 

took nor delivered any such paper, or any other paper. 

He asserted that General Jackson kept the treaty some time — 

possibly not more than one day; bat he kejrt it a sufficient time 

to form a deliberate opinion upon it. The extracts show, that 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 5 1 .", 

he never kept the treat}-, not even "possibly" for one day. 

He asserted, " he called upon him [General Jackson ] afU r a 
day or two. The extracts show that General Jackson called 
on Mr. Adams. 

He asserted that General Jackson then " returm d the tn aty. n 
The extracts prove that he had no treaty to return. 

Finally, Mr. Adams brings this tissue of fabrications, shown 
to be such by his own evidence, to a close, by asserting thai 
General Jackson "returned the treaty with his approbation <>f 
that particular boundary." The extracts show, not only that 
this assertion is not true, but that it is the reverse of truth. 

Reader, look back and read again the extracts from Mr. Ad- 
ams' diary: Is there a word in them approving the Sabine as 
our western boundary? NOT ONE WORD. On the con- 
trary, he makes General Jackson say, " He thought even that 
it would bring us again in collision with the Indians whom we are 
removing west of the Mississippi:' This is so worded as to 
show that it was part only of an argument used by General 
Jackson against that boundary. He thought " even," or he 
thought also, showing that some other objection had preceded. 
In the last interview, General Jackson is made to discuss the 
importance of Florida, and to say that, in case it were obtain- 
ed, "the VAST MAJORITY OF THE NATION would be 
satisfied with the western boundary as we propose." Not a word 
as to HIS being satisfied ; not a word showing that be approv- 
ed, or would ever agree, were he President, to give up Texas 
even for Florida. And is there a man living who believes that he 
would? 

These extracts, therefore, show that Mr. Adams was as 
wickedly false in the main question, as he was in the artful 
web of circumstances, woven out of his own imagination, to 
give his assertion point and weight. His diary docs not show 
that General Jackson approved the Sabine boundary ; but as 
far as it gives his individual views in that respect at all, shows 
that he disapproved it. 

There is another circumstance connected with this transac- 
tion which makes us look upon this man with perfeel loathing. 
The first extract from his diary shows thai he was directed by 
President Monroe to ask General Jackson's opinion "CONFI- 



516 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

DENTIALLY." The second shows that he did consult him 
" IN CONFIDENCE." He was the mere agent of the Presi- 
dent, bound, by every obligation of honor, to keep in confidence 
what was committed to him in confidence. What right had he 
to put on his diary what was committed to him by the Presi- 
dent in confidence, or received from General Jackson in con- 
fidence? Making a record of that which ought to have died 
with him unless disclosed by the consent of parties, was itself 
a breach of confidence, and a betrayal of trust. The man 
who keeps a "diary" of confidential communications, or even 
of private daily conversations, is a spy upon society, and a 
traitor in heart. He who will pencil down the casual expres- 
sions of his friends and visitors, and lay them aside, felicitating 
himself on the use he may make of them thereafter for his 
own benefit or other's injury, is fit only for an assassin, and 
should be driven out of society. We would as soon associate 
with one whom we knew had a dagger under his cloak, ready 
to stab us when he wanted our purse, and could get us by 
the throat. But such a man Mr. Adams has proved himself to 
be. Shame to those who once made him President ! In his 
"Volumes" of Diary he has a store of daggers for all who ever 
gave him their confidence or conversation. 

But if a man be warranted in transferring to paper the con- 
fidence reposed in him expressly or implicitly, and thus endan- 
ger its exposure by his death or other accident, is he at liberty, 
years afterwards, without the consent of the parties trusting 
him, to make use for it to his own advantage? In this matter, 
a!l Mr. Adams knew of General Jackson's opinions was, ac- 
cording to his own showing, obtained in confidence. When, 
in 1836, he undertook to speak of General Jackson's opinion, 
he had obtained the consent of neither the General nor Mr. 
Monroe, releasing him from his word of honor, nor had either 
of them assailed him so as to furnish the pretext of self-de- 
fence. If, therefore, Mr. Adams' dairy had contained all he 
said it did, he would, for divulging it under such circumstances, 
have been a traitor to every principle of honor held sacred 
among men. But what measure of infamy belongs to the man 
who notes down what passes in confidence between him and 
his friends, and becoming afterwards estranged, makes asser- 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. .".17 

tions avowedly upon the faith of this contemporaneous record 
which find not the least countenance in its language or its senti- 
ments? Let mankind give the verdict, and faithful histon 
record it. 

AARON V. BROWN. 
Washington, D. C, December 14, 1844. 



THE FLORIDA TREATY. 
From notes furnished by Gov. A. V. Brown. 



To thi Editors of the Richmond Enquirer: 

Washington City, February 2, 1845. 
The Florida Treaty — General Jackson and Mr. Adams — The 

New York Courier and Enquirer — Samuel 8. Govcrneur, 

Charles J. Ingersoll,and A. V. Brown. 

Every intelligent man in the United States is well aware 
that the treaty of 1819, which secured the Floridas and lost 
us that part of Louisiana known as Texas, was negociated 
by John Quincy Adams as Secretary of State, on the part of 
our government, and Don Louis de Onis, the envoy of Spain; 
and it is equally known by those who have investigated closely 
the correspondence which took place between those two diplo- 
matic functionaries, on the part of their respective Govern- 
ments, that Mr. Adams could have secured for the United 
States a much better treaty than the one which was negotiated ; 
as will be seen by reference to the communication ol* .Mr. Er- 
ving in 1S29. But, Don Onis, who was a man <>!' greal diplo- 
matic powers, saw that Mr. Adams was not very particular as 
to boundary, and he took advantage of it, and Becured to 
Spain, independent of other pecuniary advantages, a territ 
of more importance than the one she lost. \n the face of these 
historical reminiscences, and particularly at this, juncture, when 
the lost territory is anxious to re-annex itself to us, to secure. 



518 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



to her citizens that liberty and independence which had been 
guarantied to them by the treaty with France, and who had 
been alienated by a blundering piece of diplomacy, which was 
inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, so 
boldly and beautifully asserted by the Hon. Wm. H. Hammett, 
in his speech upon the question of annexation; the Hon. John 
P. Kennedy, in his puny efforts to establish for himself a repu- 
tation as a statesman and a man of talents, and to shield Mr. 
Adams from the imputation of having lost sight of the true 
interests of his country in that negotiation ; and being con- 
trolled by sectional and geographical feelings rather than 
those which should belong to a statesman of enlarged views, 
reiterated the assertion of Mr. Adams, made up from his cele- 
brated diary, which had been sleeping silently ever since, that 
General Jackson gave his assent to the treaty of Florida before 
it was negotiated; and that it was submitted to him by Mr. 
Adams, for an expression of opinion. He said, if the friends of 
Gen. Jackson denied this assertion, the evidence was in the pos- 
session of one of the legal representatives of Mr. Monroe's fam- 
ily, (Samuel S. Governeur,) in a correspondence between Gen. 
Jackson and Mr. Monroe, which established the facts as stated 
by Mr. Adams, and recorded in his diary. As a friend of Gen. 
Jackson, whose fame is the common property of his country, 
I boldly proclaim, that the assertion of Hon. Mr. Kennedy is not 
warranted by the facts ; and unless he establishes what he as- 
serts, even by his volunteer witness, (Samuel S. Governeur,) 
who received the lucrative appointment of Postmaster at New 
York from General Jackson, in consideration of his connection, 
by marriage, with Mr. Monroe, that he, for veracity, will be 
placed in the same category with Mr. Adams upon this subject. 
Upon the mere ipse dixit of this Don Quixotte, the New York 
Enquirer of January 18th, said that General Jackson was in 
an "unfortunate dilemma, by denying the assertion of Mr. 
Adams, that he approved of the treaty of 1819, at the time of 
its adoption." It further stated, " that Messrs. Charles J. In- 
gersoll, A. V. Brown, and the Globe, had not hesitated to ac- 
cuse Mr. Adams of forgery, in order to repel his assertion, sus- 
tained as it was by his diary." These extracts show the New 
York Enquirer's own statements, based upon the authority 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 519 

of Messrs. Adams and Kennedy, of the issue between General 
Jackson and Mr. Adams. What is it? That Gen. Jackson 
was consulted before the presentation of the treaty to J ton 
Onis for his signature, and that he approved the Sabine as the 
boundary. General Jackson has denied emphatically all n - 
membrance of the alleged call of Mr. Adams on him, <>r him- 
self on Mr. Adams, and also, that he ever received the treat) 
or returned it, as stated by Mr. Adams, with his approbation 
of that particular boundary. This issue was made many 
years ago. In the course of the past year Mr. Adams re- 
vived it, and General Jackson met it, in his letter of October 
22d, 1844, in the following language : 

" I say, in advance of the review I shall take of this extra- 
ordinary production, thus heralded before the public on the 
eve of the Presidential election, that the assertion of my hav- 
ing advised the treaty of 1819, is a barefaced falsehood, with- 
out the shadow of proof to sustain it." &c. 

Now, is it not evident, from this ready and unequivocal deni- 
al made by General Jackson himself, that the onus probandi fell 
upon Mr. Adams ? Why, then, was it necessary for such an 
automaton as John P. Kennedy to reiterate it? The friends 
of General Jackson call for the proof now, while he is living, 
and Mr. Kennedy, with the aid of his quandam friend, Samuel 
S. Governeur, must produce it. They think, that the porres- 
pondence, alleged to have taken place between General Jack- 
son and Mr. Monroe, will put the issue between General Jack- 
son and Mr. Adams forever at rest; but they may rest assured 
that the friends of General Jackson will allow no misstatements 
of the issue Mr. Adams has averred, viz : a previous <<,usu//<i- 
tion, and a, previous ajiproba'.ion of that particular boundary; 
and to the support of this averment, General Jackson and his 
friends will doubtless hold Mr. Adams and his friends, in all 
their attempts to esoape from the "unfortunate dilemma" in 
which he has involved himself, and I shall wait for the pr< m- 
ised publication of General Jackson's letters. 1 can readily 
imagine how it should be, that Mr. Monroe (long alter the Big- 
nature of the treaty, and when Spain was still hanging out 
againstits ratification, and when there was considerable <<j>|>u- 
sition to it here at home) writing to General Jackson of all the 



520 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



difficulties by which he had been surrounded in its negotiation, 
might well receive responses from him approbatory of what he 
had done, under all the circumstaces of the case ; but this 
Avould not aid, in the slightest degree, Mr. Adams, in averring 
that he had held a personal consultation with General Jackson, 
and secured his previous approbation of the treaty before it 
was ratified. The points at issue are, that General Jackson 
denies positively having been consulted personally by Mr. Ad- 
ams, in relation to the terms of the treaty ; and that he never 
gave his previous approbation to it. Here is the issue, and Mr. 
Adams and his friends, with the aid of his diary, must sustain 
it, or the world will award to them an unenviable position in 
the history of their country. General Jackson has never de- 
nied having had a correspondence and consultation with Mr. 
Monroe, but he denies positively, having had one upon the sub- 
ject with Mr. Adams. This is the dispute, and Mr. Adams is 
bound to prove his assertion, with corroborative testimony to 
sustain his diary, which has never been exhibited to the public 
gaze. But when did General Jackson ever say or write, that he 
was dissatisfied with the Florida treaty ab initio? Who pre- 
tends that he ever complained of it, or of Mr. Adams' nego- 
tiation of it, until he received the communication of Mr. Er- 
ving in 1829? That communication contained a statement 
of facts never before known to General Jackson until its re- 
ception. In his letter of 1843, to Mr. A. V. Brown, he expressly 
says — "7 was filled ivith astonishment /" At what was he aston- 
ished? At the disclosures made to him in the communication 
of Mr. Erving? Now, here is the starting point, as far 
as I'have any knowledge of the subject, of General Jackson's 
opposition to the Florida treaty. Before that, he had learn- 
ed, no doubt, from Mr. Monroe, the general course of the ne- 
gotiation, and the difficulties which attended it, and he might 
have thought that Mr. Monroe had done all that was in his pow- 
er to get a favorable treaty, and, therefore, may have expressed 
his approbation to him. But how vast the difference in many 
cases, between recommending the making of a treaty " before- 
hand," and " acquiescing' in one after it had been done, and 
could not be altered. The case of the late treaty with Great 
Britain, in relation to our North-eastern boundary, is an apt 



NNEXATIOX OF TEXAS. . r >2 1 

illustration. How many Senators thought it best to ratify that 
treaty after it had been made, who would never have made it 
themselves? But after Mr. Erving's statements were made, 
General Jackson found that Spain had given express authority 
to her Minister to surrender as far as the Colorado, or even 
the Rio Del Norte. He saw, in the face of this express author- 
ity, thatMr. Adams had accepted the Sabine, and he was filled 
" with astonishment," to use his own emphatic language, at 
such a dereliction of public duty. Now, it settles nothing 
between these gentlemen to produce General Jackson's letters 
to Mr. Monroe, or any body else, written after the treaty, and 
before Mr. Erving's communication. Within these periods, for 
aught I know, General Jackson may have approved what had 
been done. I have had no communication with him on the 
subject, and only judge of this controversy from what I have 
seen of it in the public newspapers, and from facts concom- 
itant with the great question upon which it originated, 

But if he ever had so approved its consummation, it was for 
the want of that information which never was communicated 
to the Senate or the public, but which General Jackson, for the 
first time, learned from Mr. Erving, our Minister to Spain. It 
is now well established by the correspondence printed by the 
order of the House of Representatives, that many parts of the 
most important communications of Mr. Erving to Mr. Adams 
were suppressed by him and never went to the Senate ;it all. — 
Hence, they were never known to the public, and only came to 
the knowledge of Gen. Jackson, through Mr. Erving's statement. 
I repeat, therefore, that letters from Gen. Jackson, approving 
directly or inferentially the Florida treaty, written after the 
treaty was made and before the communication of Mv. Erving 
to General Jackson in 1820, can prove nothing on the issues 
now pending between the parties, nor show anything incon- 
sistent with the publications of Gen. Jackson on the subject. — 
The letter of Mr. Monroe to Gen. Jackson, and his reply, pub- 
lished in the Globe of the 21st January, does not, in the least 
sustain Mr. Adams in his assertion, that General Jackson <//>- 
■proved of the Treaty before its ratification, which is the question 
in controversy. This letter is precisely as 1 anticipated, set- 
tling nothing at all of the controversy between I reneral Jackson 



522 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

and Mr. Adams. It does not pretend to speak or allude to any 
previous consultation or approbation of the Treaty by General 
Jackson. On the contrary, it entirely negatives "such an idea. 
Would Mr. Monroe have gone into all the details appertaining 
thereto, in order to explain the circumstances which governed 
his action on the Treaty, if General Jackson had been previous- 
ly consulted and apprised of all the circumstances, as asserted 
by Mr. Adams ? Such an idea is preposterous, and he may re- 
fer in vain to his diary to sustain him in his present position be- 
fore the country on this subject. Mr. Monroe's letter was 
dated long after the Treaty. Spain had failed to ratify it, and 
the subject was lying over for the future and farther action of 
the Spanish Cortes. In the mean time, many persons, (Mr. 
Clay and others,) were insisting on our taking armed posses- 
sion of Florida and Texas, without farther waiting on the ac- 
tion of Spain. Under these circumstances, Mr. Monroe says to 
General Jackson. ( among may other things, ) that he had been 
decidedly of opinion that we ought to be content with Florida 
for the present, and until public opinion in that quarter, ( the 
North,) shall be reconciled to any farther change. Why did 
Mr. Monroe so express himself to General Jackson, if he had 
been consulted by Mr. Adams before the adoption of the 
treaty? Every thing in connection with this subject, taken 
together, is entirely against Mr. Adams and his diary. Mr. 
Monroe also alleged to General Jackson, as another reason, 
why we ought to be satisfied, of the then raging of the Missouri 
question, and other difficulties by which he was surrounded, to 
justify his action and conclusions. Now, General Jackson in 
reply to such a letter says: " The view you have taken of the 
conduct of our Government relative to South America, {not 
Spain,) in my opinion has been both just and proper, and will 
be approved by nine-tenths of the nation. It is true, it has 
been attempted to be wielded by certain demagogues to the 
injury of the Administration, but, like all other base attempts, 
has recoiled on its author, and I am clearly of opinion, that for 
the present we ought to be content with the Floridas. " Does 
this, in the least, sustain Mr. Adams ? Certainly not, because 
Mr. Monroe was particular in enumerating the difficulties by 
which he was surrounded to secure General Jackson's approba- 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 

tion, which would, if it had been previously secured by Mr. 
Adams before the treaty was ratified, have hem an acl of 
supererogation on the part of Mr. Monroe. The inference to 
drawn from this correspondence is, that General Jackson did 
not know any thing of the particulars of the treaty as Btated bv 
Mr. Adams, and that Mr. Monroe's object was to secure his 
support, by pointing out the difficulties by which he wae but- 
rounded, to the treaty which had been negotiated by Mr. Adams 
and dc Onis. Here, then, is the long threatened disclosure 
that was to settle the issue between General Jackson and Mr. 
Adams ! This, too, is that new work of fiction, (not Horseshoe 
Robinson,) promised by Mr. John P. Kennedy, in his speech on 
the Annexation of Texas. If this is all they have to bolster up 
their tottering reputations and their anti- American feelings, 
General Jackson need say no more — his friends may rest in 
ease, and Mr. Adams may continue to gnaw the file of his ma- 
lignity to the last. ALGERNON SYDNEY. 



SPEECH, 

In Committee of the Whole, on the proposition directing the Judi- 
ciary Committee to report a bill abolishing the Circuit, Chan- 
cery, and Supreme Courts. 



Before commencing his argument, Mr. Brown introduced the 
following resolutions, as containing his views of the alterations 
which it was expedient and proper to make in the present ju- 
diciary system, which he moved should be adopted in lieu of 
those heretofore under discussion. 

"Resolved, That it is expedient to make the following alterations in the 
judiciary system of this State, and that the committee on that subject pre- 
pare and report a bill accordingly. 

1st. That a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court should be elected, who, 
with the three associate judges thereof, should hold said court at three 
places only, to wit : at Knoxville, Nashville and Jackson. 

2nd. That the Chancery Court should be abolished, and the causes therein 
should be transferred to the Circuit Courts of their appropriate counties. 

3rd. That the Circuit Judges should hold three terms of their courts an- 
nually, with their present jurisdiction, and such other as is hereinafter 
transferred to them. 

4th. That all jury causes should be transferred from the county to the 
circuit courts, except actions of debt and assumpsit, founded on bonds, bills, 
promissory notes and liquidated accounts signed by the party to be charged 
therewith. Such actions to be commenced as at present, but to be tried by 
the justices holding the county court, without a jury and without any de- 
claration or other pleadings in writing. Judgment to be rendered the first 
term with reasonable stay of execution, unless good cause for continuance 
be shewn by affidavit. Either party dissatisfied and desiring a jury trial, to 
be entitled to an appeal to the circuit court." 

The Clerk having read said resolutions at the table. Mr. 
Brown proceeded as follows : 



ON ABOLISHING COURTS. 52 



.)-J.» 



Mr. Chairman: You will perceive that the three first propo- 
sitions which I have just submitted, differ from those hereto- 
fore under discussion, only in this, that they do not contem- 
plate a removal of the present judges from office. The aj stem 

—the plan— the frame-work of the courts, is substantially the 
same, the removal of the present incumbents constituting the 
only material difference between the respective propositions. 
This being the case, I shall proceed to the discussion of tin- 
subject, 1 trust, with the same good temper and courtesy, which 
have heretofore distinguished this debate. The gentlemen 
from Smith and from Rutherford, who opened this discussion. 
have set us an example, in this respect, worthy of our imita- 
tion. They met in the tournament, shivered their lances and 
retired, with a gallantry which would have done honor to the 
most experienced champions in the proudest days of chivalry. 
Other gentlemen have followed on both sides, doing great 
justice to the subject and reflecting on themselves and their 
constituents the very highest credit. But what arc to be tin- 
results— the practical effects of all this debating? Is it likely 
to terminate in a mere war of words — in a mere personal 
struggle for rhetorical ascendency? I do most Bincerely de- 
sire that it may : but from the moment of its commencement 
I have had the most serious forebodings on my mind. Have 
you not observed what profound attention has been paid to 
this debate — what deep and breathless anxiety pervades all 
who have witnessed this discussion? Gentlemen need not 
imagine that it is a mere compliment to their powers in de- 
bate. JNo, sir, your fellow-citizens have learned that the in- 
dependence of the judiciary, that main pillar in our political 
fabric, is about to be pulled down, and they cannot be insensi- 
ble to the disastrous consequences. Nor will the effects of 
this discussion be confined within these walls; for we are 
kindling a spark in this debate, which will hereafter spread, 
and brighten, and burn, through every county in the State. 
The gentlemen know they can extinguish it now that they 
can extinguish it in a moment, if they choose to do so. If, 
however, they will not, let them remember how we warned 
them — how we even implored them not to break up the deep 
foundations of social order, nor visit on Tennessee the distract- 
ing scenes of Kentucky. 



526 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

Let us examine what necessity there is, granting that they 
have constitutionally the power — what necessity there is for 
raising and pressing, with so much zeal, this delicate and per- 
plexing question. The gentleman from White has been plea- 
sed to represent, in fervid language, the sufferings of the pro- 
pie for want of the proposed alterations. He, I think it was, 
that represented the country " as bleeding at every pore." The 
gentleman from Davidson, though he did not deal in such 
bloody metaphor, dipped his pencil in the most gloomy colors, 
and presented us a picture of justice " old, and blind, and maim 
ed." Now, sir, I propose to throw away all metaphor — that 
being too much the language of poetry and romance — and to in- 
stitute a plain matter of fact enquiry, whether there exists any 
adequate necessity for turning all our judges out of office. 

I begin with those of the Circuit Courts, and of East Ten- 
nessee. I ask of the gentlemen on the other side of the moun- 
tain, what fault do they find of Powell. What has he done to 
justify the legislature of his country in rudely dismissing him 
from office? On this side we have often heard that he deserved 
higher advancement in the judiciary, and possessed eminent 
claims to the political honors of the State. 

I will next inquire as to judge Scott. What terrible explo- 
sion has taken place in his circuit — what popular rage is drag- 
ging him from the bench where he has so long, and, as I thought, 
so usefully presided? 

The next in order is judge Keith. With him I have never 
had the pleasure of an acquaintance: but for ten years of pub- 
lic life, I have associated with members of the Legislature and 
other persons from his judicial circuit, and I know of no public 
officer, who, from information, occupies a more enviable station 
in the esteem and confidence and gratitude of his country. 

Now, sir, having gotten through with the East Tennessee 
judges, I demand to know of their representatives on this floor, 
what well-founded complaints can be exhibited against them? 
If they tell me none, then 1 enquire of them how they can re- 
concile it to reason or justice, to their consciences, to dis- 
grace those judges by wantonly turning them out of office. It 
will be no sufficient apology to them or to the country to say 
Ave intend to remove that disgrace by restoring them to office. 



ON ABOLISHING COURTS. 

The combinations of interest and tho resentments of disap- 
pointed ambition in a new election, may render them lia 
hazards, to which it is cruelty and injustice to expose them. 

I will next enquire, whether any necessity exists !'<.;• this ra 
measure, among the judges of the Western District. Of ju 
Hamilton I have heard no complaint. Of judge Turley 1 ni 
expect to hear any. He is one of those rare instances of ju 
making in Tennessee, which could hardly be bettered. 

Judge Haskell, whatever might have once been the ea 
seems lately to have risen in popularity in his circuit. At 
all events, it can hardly be necessary to nullify him out of 
office, since you are in a fair way to do so in a much more con- 
stitutional manner. I come now to speak of the judges of 
Middle Tennessee, and I begin with judge Kennedy. The his- 
tory of our lives would show, that we have not ahecn/s been 
friendly, and that we are not now the greatest admirers of « 
other; but, sir, were he my greatest enemy, his character i - a 
man and his reputation as a judge, shall not be tarnished with 
my consent by turning him out of office. Next, sir, 1 will en- 
quire, who complains of judge Humphreys? 1 know not, and 1 
care not; for turn him out when you may, his place will not 
supplied by an equal. Have complaints been raised aga 
judge Mitchell? If so, let us take warning from the fact. It 
goes to show that the judge which you made in t829 could not 
last until 1831, What assurance then have gentlemen to 
fer, that this whole tribe af judges which you are proposing to 
make, will endure until 1833? I have yet to speak of ju 
Stewart andjudge Williams, and have left them for the last, he- 
cause I knew they were most complained oi 1 believe, 
that nine-tenths of all this noise and clamor again it the judges 
may be traced to their two circuits. Admit .ill this complaint 
to be well founded, do not gentlemen perceive how unjust it 
would be, to involve the other judges in the same disgrace with 
these? Surely that morai vision must be clouded that could 
expect the representatives of the other nine judges to commit 
an act so unreasonable and so indefensible. 1 will . 
ask the gentlemen from Williams' circuil if we have not al- 
ready done a great deal to relieve them from the real or 
posed hardship of their condition. At the last session tl 
35 



528 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS, 

sands were spent to rid them of the evil by the' direct opera- 
tion of an impeachment. When that failed, a new circuit was 
formed to lighten their burdens. Beside all this, in 1827, the 
complaints from that quarter induced the Legislature to pass a 
law authorizing the appointment of special judges. In doing 
this I admit the provisions of the constitution were most prob- 
ably transcended, but coming from that region of the State, 
the gentleman from White should have been the last to re- 
proach us for the infraction. Sir, I am inclined to believe that 
it is because we have done so much, and shewed such a dispo- 
sition to do every thing asked for, that we are now called upon 
to consummate this last and fatal act of constitutional viola- 
tion. 

As to judge Stewart, most of us were boys — some on this 
floor were scarcely in existence — when he commenced the la- 
bors of the bench. This flourishing city in which we are now de- 
liberating on his overthrow, was then nothing more than an 
ordinary village. He penetrated the forest, visited all the new 
counties as they were established, and in log court houses which 
neither sheltered him from the rain nor protected him from the 
cold, administered the law, " without sale, denial or delay." 
Patient and persevering, and possessing more learning than many 
who outstripped him in the career of judicial promotion, he has 
been for twenty-two years the most virtuous, the most unam- 
bitious, and the most useful of all our circuit judges. I will go 

further and assert to this committee, that he has rendered more 
valuable services to the people of this State than any other 

judge of any grade or rank whatever. Your books of reports 
may hand down to posterity many names more honored than 
his, but the memory of none will be more richly embalmed in 
the affections and gratitude of the present generation. And 
yet he too is to be swept away by this modern doctrine of judi- 
cial nullification ! And for what ? Because he has grown old. 
Yes, sir, that is true ; but let it be remembered, that he has 
grown old in your service. The infirmity of his body has not 
impaired a single faculty of his mind. I this day assert that he 
knows more law than half his persecutors, and is a better judge 
than the best half of those who are getting ready to step into 
his slippers. But he is crippled, withal, and goes upon crutch- 



ON ABOLISHING COURTS. 529 

es ! How did he become so ? He has told the simple and af- 
fecting story in his own memorial now lying on your ta.de. 1 
was in this city when the news of his unfortunate accident ar- 
rived ; I witnessed the anxiety of the public mind about bifl 
fate, and let me warn gentlemen how they too rudely pull him 
down from the bench: forjudging from what I then saw, his 
downfall may excite a tide of popular indignation, deep, power- 
ful and overwhelming. 

I have often thought, that there was something strange and 
unaccountable in the cold indifference, and even absolute neg- 
lect, of the world toward meritorious and useful civil officers. 
You decree a triumph to him who captures a city — you crown 
with laurels the General who achieves for you a victory, whilst 
the judge who builds up and perfects your jurisprudence and 
administers justice in its purity to thousands, lives unrespected 
and dies unhonored. For myself it is not so ; for I would to- 
day rear as proud a monument to the memory of a Haywood, 
a Crabb, and a Brown, as to that of the bravest hero that expired 
on the plains of New Orleans. Holding such sentiments as 
these, I should be recreant to honor and to justice, were I to 
join in this crusade against the judges. Yet I desire gentle- 
men, whilst 1 acquit them of every improper motive, to under- 
stand distinctly the reasons why I cannot go with them. 

1st. Because they do not substantially change the system — 
they do not even give it a new dress. It is called, to be sure, 
a district court, but what signifies names? It is to be held by 
one judge as at present — to beheld at the same places — to 
have the same jurisdiction, and is, to all intents and purposes, 
the old circuit court over again. I regard it as a disguised and 
fraudulent bantling, re-christened by the gentlemanYrom Smith, 
with the gentlemen from Davidson and from White standing 
as its reputed God-fathers ! 

2nd. I cannot go with them, because I do verily believe we 
shall get worsted in the exchange. We have now eight or nine 
good judges and only two or three indifferent ones. 1 had 
rather stand as we are, than risk the chances of making mat- 
ters worse by attempting to mend them. 

Mr. Chairman, I pass over the proposition in favor of abol- 
ishing the Chancery Courts. All the different propositions 



530 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

believe contemplate that event. It is demonstrable that they 
render no service adequate to the expense. They now stand 
as sinecure offices, which ought not to be allowed in a repub- 
lican country. Such they must continue to be, unless you trans- 
fer to them all equity jurisdiction from the circuit courts. This 
I apprehend the people will not consent to, as they are too few 
in number and too sparsely scattered over the country. 

Nor do I intend now to discuss at length the proposition to 
transfer all jury cases from the county to the circuit court. I 
shall ask of this committee hereafter a separate and distinct 
consideration of that branch of the subject, when I hope to be 
able to show, that such a transfer will be greatly serviceable to 
both plaintiffs and defendants, and calculated to lighten the 
taxes and diminish the expenses of litigation in every county 
in the State. 

I proceed therefore to consider the last proposition to abolish 
the present Supreme Court and to build up another on its ru- 
ins. This is your court of the highest and last resort — the 
head and the heart of your judicial system. It is the head, be- 
cause from it all the subordinate members receive their direc- 
tion, and the heart, because from it proceeds every principle of 
vitality that pervades and strengthens the whole. You may 
lop away one member after another, and still the branchless 
trunk would live, a mutilated monument of the heedless vio- 
lence of the times ; but when you have once laid the axe to the 
root and prostrated its majestic trunk on the ground, all will 
be lost that rendered life secure or made liberty valuable. 

Let this committee remember that no substantial alteration 
in the system of this court is proposed. Its name, its jurisdic- 
tion, its emoluments are the same. It is the old Supreme Court 
in disguise, with but little to conceal its identity. Gentlemen 
have only muttered a few cabalistic words, and the presen 
court has disappeared and a new one has risen in its place, with 
nothing to distinguish it but a new set of judges ! Is such pre- 
tended magic consistent with the constitution of the State ? — 
The 2nd section of the 5th article declares, the General As- 
sembly shall by joint ballot of both houses appoint judges of the 
several courts of law and equity, who shall hold their respective 
offices during good behaviour — not so long as they may remain 



ON ABOLISHING COURTS. ;,:; \ 

young— not so long as they may be blessed with eyesight— not 
so long as they may be popular with the Assembly ' bul for and 
during their good behaviour. Sir, I throw no peculiar Banctity 

around our judges, I am no advocate for them as individuals. 
and would never consent to keep up useUss or unne< essary offi- 
ces for their benefit; but I maintain that sccording to thespiril 
and intention of the constitution, we have norighl to abolish a 
necessary and useful office for the purpose of getting clear of ob- 
noxious incumbents. If the Legislature possess this right, then 
our judiciary can no longer be regarded as independent. The 
judges continue in office, not during their good behaviour, bnt 
during the will and pleasure of the General Assembly. If it 
were intended that they should hold their offices by so frail a 
tenure as this, why so much caution in providing for their re- 
moval by impeachment? Why so carefully provide, not that a 
majority, but that two thirds of the Senate, sittmg as a court of 
impeachment, should be necessary to conviction? Now all 
these safe guards have been erected in vain, if the Legi lature 
can, in this summary way, remove the judges at its pleasure. 

A precedent for doing so has been drawn from the removal 
of the midnight judges of the elder Adams. There is not the 
slightest resemblance between the cases. The Federal party 
had changed the system — they had established a separate Su- 
preme Court to beholden by adistinct set of judges, and to find 
employment for their favorites, had required the district courts 
to be holden, not by one, but by a plurality of Judges. The 
Republican party, coming into power the very next da} . \.<ie of 
opinion that the change was an improper and unn \ one. 

and therefore repealed it at once and restored to the country 
the former system. They were abolishing useless and unne< 
sary offices, and the incumbents necessarily fell with them. Be- 
sides, sir, if the history of those times were examined, which I 
Have not done for many years, it would very probably be found, 
that no commissions were ever actually delivered, <>r any oath 
of qualification ever administered to those new judges how- 
ever this may he, the repeal can be justified on the mo | cor- 
rect principles without referring it to the party exci ennuis of 
the day. The repeal of the old district court, in 1809, ami the 
establishment of the present Circuit and Supreme Court system 



532 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

is also adduced as a precedent. I will not take up the time of 
this committee in showing the total want of resemblance in the 
two cases. The whole organization of the courts was changed, 
and not the slightest inclination manifested to wage a personal 
war against the judges. The effect of such a warfare must al- 
ways be disastrous*, and if the doctrines so earnestly advocated 
on the other side should finally prevail, then indeed as has been 
said, we shall find ourselves far at sea, without a chart and 
without a compass — every wave will carry us further from safe- 
ty and every breeze of popular commotion, will but hasten our 
destruction. Your judges, standing solitary and unsupported, 
are obliged to be overpowered — they have been so in this pre- 
sent controversy. The cry of their destruction has gone forth, 
and to escape their pursuers they have fled to the constitution — 
yes, they have fled to that as the city of refuge, and are now 
standing and holding to the horns of the altar. I implore gen- 
tlemen not to pursue them further, nor pollute the sanctuary 
by staining it with their blood. But, sir, I believe that I am 
imploring in vain; I believe that a majority of this house is de- 
termined to accomplish this work of destruction. They have 
seized, like the strong man of old, on the pillars of the constitu- 
tion, and are determined to pull it down on our heads. If it 
must be so, I will not fly for safety, but call on every friend to 
the constitution and an independent judiciary, to stand by each 
other to the last, and let us be buried in its ruins. 



ADDRESS, 
Delivered at Pulaski, by A. V. Brown, to his const Hum's on 
return from the called session of the Legislature of 1832. 



Gentlemen and Fellow Citizens: I am induced to address you 
on the present occasion, in order to respond to the frequent en- 
quiries made as to what course I shall probably pursue in the 
next elections. On my return from the Legislature, I disov< ap- 
ed that so many of my political friends were expecting me to 
offer for another station, that I came to the determination not 
to be again a candidate for the General Assembly. Having 
communicated this fact to a few individuals, 1 wish now to make 
a public declaration of it, in order that all who desire to become 
candidates, may have early and fair notice. 

In taking leave of you as your representative, I beg leave to 
trespass awhile on your patience, in reviewing some of tie [host 
prominent subjects connected with my Late service, it is most 
common for public men to address you on subjects that lie in 
prospective — aspiring to win your favor, they attempt to lift 
the curtain of futurity, and to please your imaginations with the 
brightest visions which genius and fancy in their highest re- 
velry can possibly create. I have no such splendid prospects, 
however, to lay before you — my business now is with the past 
— not the future; to lay before, your understandings, not your 
passions, a true and just account of all my conduct as your 
pnblic agent. I am the more ready to render that account, from 
a deep and thorough conviction, that during no period of my 
public life have I better sustained your interest and maintained 
your rights, than during the two last sessions of the General 
Assembly. 



534 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



The public acts of the regular session have now been for 
more than twelve months before the public mind, and as far as 
I have been able to learn, have given general satisfaction. — 
With but few if any exceptions they have been found to be 
based on equal and impartial justice, calculated neither to pam- 
per the rich nor to oppress the poor — intended for the benefit 
of all, they confer no party or sectional advantages, but look 
forward to the general welfare of the whole State. As to the 
special laws of that session, in which the county of Giles was 
interested, we presume none can be dissatisfied. At the com- 
mencement of that session, the county had not a single dollar 
in the way of public funds, except what was raised by ordinary 
taxation ; at its close, your representatives had obtained for her 
between 12 and $lo,000. All remember the dissatisfaction 
that then prevailed about our Agency Bank. Your representa- 
tives prevailed on the Legislature to cut off the greater part of 
it from the mother Bank, and to make a donation of it to the 
county of Giles. Its superintendence was given to all the 
Justices of the county, whilst its direct management was given 
to Mr. Abernathy, an agent, in whose integrity and capacity for 
such business, I know you have unbounded confidence. Beside 
this, your representatives obtained for you nearly $3000 for the 
important purpose of improving your navigable waters. Both 
of these sums, making in all about 12 to $15,000, they procured 
for you at one session. They made it absolutely yours, putting 
it beyond all future chances of being taken from you. When, 
let me ask, since 1809, when this county was first organized, 
did you ever receive such a donation as this ? Never. And I 
will venture the assertion, that when the little prejudices and 
the passions of the present times shall have passed awa} T , and 
public men shall be judged by what they do, by what they ac- 
complish for you, and not by the dictates of party animosity, 
this one donation alone will hail that session as one of the most 
liberal and useful to the county which was ever hold en. 

With this slight reference to the regular session, I will now 

pass to the more recent and important event* of the called 

ion. The uninformed have sometimes complained that this 

session should not have been convened at all. They impute it 

to some neglect or oversight of the members of the Legislature. 



ADDRESS. 

To these, it is proper to say, that such a session was unavoida- 
ble, and that no talents, however lofty, and no industry, ho we\ er 
assiduous, could have rendered it unnecessary. The Constitu- 
tion of the United States requires a new census and n n.w ap- 
portionrnent of representatives every ten years. This law <>1 
Congress, passed in April, or May, 183:2 ; whereas the Legisla- 
ture of this State, having gotten through with all its busin 
had adjourned about the middle of December, 1831. 

Were we to have continued in session, with nothing to do 
all that time, waiting for Congress to pass that law? or \ 
we to be gifted with the spirit of prophecy, and thereby know 
beforehand how many new representatives we would be enti- 
tled to, and to lay off the districts accordingly? Alas! your 
representatives, like their constituents, are but poor prophets, 
and can find themselves full of employment in comprehending 
the past and providing for the present, without pretending to 
lay claim to a prescience of the future ! 

That law of Congress gave to Tennessee four additional 
members of that body, and of course four more electors of 
President and Vice President. In these, alarming times, when 
Congress was engaged on the great questions of the Hank, of 
Internal Improvement, the Tariff, etc., were you willing to do 
without your full weight in the national councils ? Again, wen 
you willing in the Presidential election, whilst General Jackson 
was struggling in his election against Henry Clay, the anti- 
Masons, the United States Bank, and the old federal party 
in the bargain, to take away from him four votes in Tenn 
see, to which he was entitled? No, gentlemen — the Governor 
knew his own duty and your wishes too well not to convene 
the Legislature on such an important occasion. If he had not 
done so, he would have been denounced from one end of th< 
State to the other; and you yourselves would have hern 
amongst the loudest in his malediction. Liberty i- better than 
money, and the expense of a called session oughl ao1 t<> weigh 
as the dust in the balance, when compared with the perma- 
nence and safety of our republican institutions. 

In his message, the Governor called our attention to the I.e. - 
ins: oil' of Congressional districts, according to the new ap- 
portionment of Congress. This has always been found a 



536 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

troublesome and perplexiug business. I was in the Legisla- 
ture ten years ago, when the present system was formed; I 
then witnessed the difficulty of making any arrangement which 
would give universal satisfaction, and at the same session took 
an early opportunity to explain to the committee, most of whom 
had no experience on such subjects, the main source whence 
dissatisfaction then arose, and implored them, as far as practi- 
cable, to avoid such difficulties. I was opposed to long dis- 
tricts, because they were sure to create a struggle amongst the 
counties for the centre — each anxious to get a favorable posi- 
tion for itself, would exert every effort to avoid being placed 
at either end of the district. Laying down this principle, I 
insisted, wherever it was practicable, to lay off the districts in 
a triangle, rather than an oblong. In that form, no county 
would be in the centre, and therefore none would have a right 
to complain. Applying these rules to this quarter of the State, 
I was willing to place Bedford, Warren and Franklin, in one 
district; Lincoln, Giles and Maury, in another ; and then to give 
three districts to the west, beginning on Lawrence, etc., west. 
Contrary, however, to this wish, the committee reported our 
district in its present form, I voting against it on account of its 
being longitudinal instead of triangular. 

In the House, whilst the bill was on its passage, I was still 
anxious for Lincoln, Giles and Maury to compose the district 
rather than the present, because I knew Lincoln would be dis- 
satisfied at running so far to the west, whilst the small coun- 
ties would be dissatisfied at being connected with the large ones 
above. Whilst, however, I was exerting myself to bring about 
a district composed of Lincoln, Giles and Maury, the former 
made an effort to place herself in the centre, by taking Frank- 
lin on the east, and Giles on the west. This proposition was 
directly at war with the interest of both Franklin and Giles, 
because it placed them, though much the smallest counties, on 
the outer skirts of the district, whilst it placed Lincoln between 
seven hundred or one thousand votes stronger than either 
exactly in the centre. I regretted this proposition very much, 
because it compelled me to give up the idea of" Lincoln, Giles 
and Maury, which I thought would give the least dissatisfac- 
tion, and in self-defence, to contend for the centre for my own 



ADDRESS. 537 

county, rather than yield it to Lincoln, in running the district 
towards the mountains. At this point, therefore, the interest 
of Giles and Lincoln was directly at issue ; 1 had tried invaria- 
bly to avoid bringing their interest in conilict. I believed it 
might be avoided by laying off a triangular district, but, when 
that issue was made by Lincoln's asking the centre for hers* If, 
I had no alternative left, but to ask it for you. 1 was your 
sworn representative; I had to act for Giles and not for Lin- 
coln. The struggle was a bold and manly one on both sides 
victory sometimes being declared on one side and sometimes on 
the other. It at last settled down in your favor, leaving Lin- 
coln no more right to be dissatisfied than Giles would have 
been, if victory had been declared on the other side. Had I 
been the representative of Lincoln I should most probably 
have done as he did, but, being the representative of Giles, my 
sworn dirty required me to act as I did. Every reason that 
made Lincoln desire the centre, made Giles desire it, and every 
thing which made Lincoln averse to being at one end of a dis- 
trict, made Giles averse to the same position. The recollec- 
tion, however, that " the race is not always to the swift, nor 
the battle to the strong," ought to teach all the counties of 
the district not to remember in unkindness a generous rival- 
ship, which is past, but to look forward in noble emulation, 
which can in future give the highest proof of republican virtue 
and patriotic devotion to the interest and glory of our coun- 
try. 

Our next duty required is, to provide for the election of elec- 
tors of President and Vice President. The Governor in his 
Message recommended this as a favorable period for the adop- 
tion of the general ticket system. This recommendation was 
published probably in every newspaper in the State, and thou- 
sands of copies were printed and distributed in every part of 
the country ; in the meantime not a single newspaper, not a 
single letter, was written to the members that I ever heard of; 
not one public meeting in any county of the State was held in 
opposition, and the members of the Legislature might well 
say, the general ticket system, as recommended by the Gov- 
ernor, meets with the general, and, probably, universal appro- 
bation of the people ; for all have heard it proposed to us. and 



538 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

none have opposed it. The general ticket system was there- 
fore adopted under the implied approbation of nearly every 
man in the State, and was adopted by a unanimous vote, I 
believe, with the exception, probably, of one single member. 
Yet strange to tell, it is now objected to. Who of my coun- 
trymen were the first and loudest to make complaints ? They 
were the enemies of Jackson and the friends of Adams and 
Clay. They made a huge outcry, and many plain upright 
men, that were not of their party, but were good friends to 
their country, not understanding the subject, and not knowing 
the motives of the Adams and Clay men, were deceived and 
carried away by their clamor. I stand up this day not to apol- 
ogize for the adoption of this system, but to justify and defend 
it. Go back with me to the dark and trying period of '98, when 
the great battle was fought between the Federalists and Re- 
publicans, in the election between old John Adams and Thom- 
as Jefferson. What was it that lost the republicans several 
votes in the Southern States ? It was not having adopted the 
general ticket ; the federalists had been on their guard and 
had adopted it, whilst the republicans, not looking into the mat- 
ter so deeply, were taken by surprise and well nigh ruined by 
it. The moment, however, that election was over, the repub- 
licans in the old States resolved never to have such an advan- 
tage taken of them again ; and Virginia, and North Carolina, 
and other States, instantly adopted the general ticket system. 
Many of the new States coming into the Union after this great 
struggle did not know so much by experience, and therefore 
adopted the district system. On reflection, however, they 
changed the plan; and at the time of the last session there was 
no State in the Union that voted by districts but Tennessee and 
Maryland. Maryland has not changed, because she has always 
leaned to the federal side — but Tennessee has always been on 
the republican side. She has always been for Jefferson, Mad- 
ison, Monroe and Jackson; and therefore it was proper she 
should adopt the same system and walk in the same footsteps 
with her republican sisters of the Union. 

Many of the citizens of this State, however, do not oppose 
the adoption of the system, whilst they mainly object to a ticket 
having been made and recommended to their consideration. 



ADDRESS- ;,;{<» 

Many seem to regard this as an abridgment of their righ 

and speak of it as a dangerous assumption of power; Let it 
be remembered, that this change was effected al a called 
sion, when riot more than forty-odd days were to elapse before 
the election. The State is more than five hundred miles in 
length and more than one hundred in breadth. The nm elec- 
toral law must be printed at Nashville and carried to the dif- 
ferent counties of the State, and be re-printed in the other 
newspapers of the county towns, and thus sent out to the peo- 
ple, who will require sometime to form themselves into public 
assemblies, and nominate those candidates whom they intend 
to support; these nominations must then find their way through 
every part of the State, in time to be known every where be- 
fore the election. Now, how long would it be before the 
Nashville papers would reach East Tennessee, and the law be 
re-printed, and the people in that section meet and make their 
nominations? Then how long before these nominations 
through the papers will be generally known to the people of the 
Western District? Every one must know that all this .•mild not 
be done with any certainty, in the common course of things, in 
forty-odd days. If not done when the election came on, the 
people would all be in confusion. Those in East Tennessee 
would not know whom those in the Western District were 
voting for on the Jackson ticket, nor those in the West be ap- 
prised of the electors to be run in the East ; and thus the differ- 
ent parts of the State, though aiming to support the same good 
cause, could not act in concert in the election. The very 
thing our enemies desired, and by which they hoped they 
might have some chance in Tennessee, and accordingly made 
out a Clay ticket. 

Now, fellow-citizens, it was this very shortness of time ; it was 
to avoid this very confusion amongst friends, and to defeat 
the hopes and schemes of our enemies, that induced as to 
make out and recommend these electors to you. It waa not 
to abridge your rights, but to enlarge them, l.\ enabling you 
to vote for fifteen, instead of one elector, as heretofore. It 
was not to dictate and compel your votes, contrary to your 
wishes, but only to recommend and give facility and effect to 
those votes which we knew you were determined to give to 



540 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

Jackson. The Legislature felt like too much was at stake 
in the election of that illustrious and venerable man. to run 
any hazard of losing the vote of Tennessee for the want of 
an electoral ticket. If there had been more time to go upon, 
the members would not have thought a moment of doing so. 
But, when her enemies were proudly boasting that New York 
would abandon him, that South Carolina would not vote for 
him, and that even good old Pennsylvania, seduced by the 
mammon of unrighteousness, would forget her ancient affec- 
tion for him, your representatives would have been traitors 
to him, to you, and to their country, not to have done all 
in their power to give him the vote of Tennessee, without 
even the possibility of a failure. He is a citizen of Ten- 
nessee ; he is proud of being so ; he has declared that his 
brightest glory is identified with her, and that wherever he 
may be when Providence shall be pleased to call him from 
his earthly labors, his desires and his commands have already 
been given, that his mortal remains shall be laid for repose 
in the bosom of her soil. I have looked "Upon his grave, 
already prepared by his own orders, close by the side of her, 
whom, when living, he so much loved, and whom his enemies 
so much and so wantonly calumniated. If we have erred, it 
has been on the side of safety ; we have pursued the counsel 
of the Fathers of the Republic ; we have followed the foot- 
steps of the ablest and the wisest States of the Union, and let 
me assure you, that if your future statesmen shall never follow 
worse counsels, nor imitate worse examples, you have nothing 
to fear, your freedom will be secure as your mountains, and 
your prosperity as abundant as your rivers that roll their 
mighty tribute to the ocean. 

Both of these last mentioned subjects were brought before 
us by executive communication, but when they were disposed 
of, the Legislature was not willing to adjourn without bestow- 
ing the most serious attention to the various memorials of 
the people, in favor of a State Bank. These memorials set 
forth the pecuniary distresses of the country in the most feeling 
manner, and referring to the large amount due to the United 
States Bank, and to the sudden suspension or contraction of 
its accommodations, insisted that the establishment of a State 



ADDRESS. 5 1 1 

Bank, presented the only means of extricating the commu- 
nity from its embarrassments. In order to show their anxietj 
on this subject, and to give assistance to the Legislature they 
had in many of the counties elected delegates to met I at 
Nashville, for the purpose of consulting and present u 
subject in the most forcible manner to the General Assembly. 
These delegates presented the charter of a Bank on what wa- 
most called "the real estate plan," new in its principles and 
complicated in its details. On its third reading in the Senate, 
at a late period of the session, it was clearly ascertained that 
such a charter could not pass, and thereupon, the bill being 
withdrawn for amendment, your representatives, deeply im- 
pressed with the propriety of having a Bank of some descrip- 
tion, took all the papers to their room and made out the char- 
ter which finally passed, and which is now before the public as 
a law of the land. In preparing this charter, the Legislature 
has used every possible care to avoid the errors heretofore com- 
mitted on similar subjects. In chartering former Banks, there 
was no sufficient safeguard against issuing too much paper for 
the specie on hand, nor against injudicious laws to stockhold- 
ers, predicated on their stock. In the present one, a provision 
is inserted, that should the directors violate the charters in 
these particulars, they shall be liable in their individual pro- 
perty, and if that should fail to repair all damages, the stock- 
holders, in their private estates, to the extent of each one's 
stock, are liable for the balance. This is an important prin- 
ciple, distinguishing this from all former charters, and pro- 
tecting the people from the evils heretofore experienced by 
broken banks in the State. Tennessee has set the example, 
and if other States will follow, we shall hear no more of hank 
explosions, of depreciated currency, etc. Nor shall we b< 
often assailed with the argument that the people cannot do 
without a National Bank. The President, it is fame, has ve- 
toed that Bank; and in doing so, has covered himself with the 
highest glory ; but unless the differenl Slates, when they create 
Banks, shall establish them on the most sale an.l permanent 
foundations, there is still great danger that this institution wil' 
yet recover from its discomfiture and ride triumphant over the 
rights of the States. 



542 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

In relation to the Senatorial election, about which my friend 
Mr. Field has just spoken, like him I gave my vote to Maj. 
Eaton ; not because his respected and talented opponents 
might not have deserved such an appointment, but because I 
believed that in voting for him I was sustaining the wishes of 
a majority of those whom I had the honor to represent. I had 
voted for him in two former elections, to the same office, and 
no complaint was ever made of my having done so. For ten 
years he had served as the Senator of Tennessee. He had 
proved himself worthy of the high trust. General Jackson 
had taken him from the Senate, as I knew, expressly against 
Maj. Eaton's repeated objections and remonstrances. In this 
situation he had been assailed and persecuted by the enei.iies 
of the administration, and with a bitterness, and, as I think all 
must admit, to an extent far beyond what there could have 
been any reason or necessity for. Believing him to be a pure 
patriot and a sound statesman, I felt disposed, by my vote, to 
show to the world that Tennessee retained undiminished con- 
fidence in him, and as was the case with Hill, Van Buren and 
others, rebuke the enemies of the administration for assailing 
the President, through his most intimate and confidential friends. 

There are other subjects of importance on \\hich, as your 
representative, I have had to act; but the time allotted for ad- 
dressing you admonishes me not to trespass too long on your 
patience. The present is a fearful crisis in your national af- 
fairs ; but I believe I can safely say that our State concerns are, 
in the general, in a safe and prosperous condition. If I have 
contributed in any degrees to that prosperity, it amply com- 
pensates me for all the privations of ten or twelve years of 
public service. Tennessee has taken decided grounds on the 
great question of nullification, now agitated, and expected 
shortly to disturb the integrity and union of the States. At 
this very moment, the convention of one of the heretofore most 
patriotic States of the Union, is in session, and in solemn de- 
liberation whether or not to oppose one of the public laws of 
the general government. None of us can doubt but that they 
will attempt to effect that fearful and desperate measure. If 
so, and the powers of the State should be brought in open re- 
sistance against the laws of Congress, the consequences must 



address. mt; 

long be deplored by the friends of freedom all over the world. 

Tennessee has uniformly protested against the oppression 
of the Protective Tariff system, but she has equally raited h< r 
voice against the rash and unconstitutional measures propose I 
by South Carolina; she abhors oppression, but will never b 
up the Union. She will cling to that whilst there is hop< 
the world and as long as liberty has a friend upon earth. Let 
us, however, indulge a hope, that the State who gave birth to a 
Sumpter and a Marion, to the Hugers, Rutledges, and Middle- 
tons of the revolution, will not be the first to sever a Union, 
reared by the wisdom and cemented by the blood of the nobk-t 
martyrs that ever lived or died in the cause of freedom. 

Your members of Congress, as national statesmen, must 
take charge of these high concerns. The times demand that 
they should be men of known prudence, of acknowledged wis- 
dom, and unsuspected patriotism. With such men as these, 
to be co-workers with your venerable President, the Republic 
may yet be safe. The clouds that now hover dark and por- 
tentous over the Union, may be dispelled, and our national ban- 
ner may yet wave in the breeze, with no star eclipsed and no 

stripe erased from its majestic folds. 
36 



LETTER 

To the South Western, or New Orleans Railroad Convention. 



I congratulate you and the whole country on the assemblage 
of your honorable body. I regard it as a commencement of a 
series of measures destined to exert a most salutary influence 
on our future destiny. The place selected is the proper one 
in all respects, and the time eminently propitious. New 
Orleans has so many natural advantages, that she must always 
be exempt from much of the suspicion of undue selfishness, to 
which many other places might be exposed. With or without 
railroads, her majestic river and its mighty tributaries must 
always supply her with all the elements of boundless wealth 
and prosperity. What if other cities should occasionally pen- 
etrate a few interior valleys, and here and there make a few 
encroachments on her former commerce, the impression would 
be too slightly felt to impede her onward progress. The insig- 
nificant loss would be more than compensated by the increased 
stimulus which a general railroad system would impart to the 
productive energies of the country. 

But the place is not more favorable than the time is auspi- 
cious. The southern and western mind is now ripe, thoroughly 
ripe, on all the subjects which I suppose will occupy your atten- 
tion. These, I expect, will be chiefly the devising of a proper 
railroad, system for the South and W T est ; the introduction and 
encouragement of a more extensive system of manufacturing 
*nto the same region, and the encouragement of importations 
into our southern cities, and a direct trade between them and 



LETTER ON RAILROADS, ETC. 545 

foreign countries. On all these subjects, I repeat, the public 
mind is thoroughly ripe for action. 

As to railroads, who that ever made one distant journey by 
water, that did not prefer dryland for the next? With or 
without cause for it, the universal passion of the age has be- 
come, to desert the water and to fly to the land — not only to fly 
to it, but to fly on it, at the rate of forty or sixty miles to the 
hour. Even here in Tennessee, we who have been heretofore 
a patient and slow-moving people, (except in war times,) have 
been so quickened up that nothing but the iron horse and the 
telegraph will now do us. We are giving a hearty welcome 
to every railroad that approaches our borders — our legislature 
is now granting charters to the Louisville and Cincinnati roads 
to Nashville, and from that point to the Great Bend of Tennes- 
see, in a suitable direction, to meet with the New Orleans and 
Mobile roads, when extended to that river. We are, in fact, 
reaching out our arms in every direction, proffering an affec- 
tionate embrace to all. To none a more fraternal one than to 
our sister cities of the South — Mobile and New Orleans. Let 
them come by their own ways to the Tennessee river, a little 
above or below where our State-line crosses it, and where all 
obstructions to navigation will be avoided, and we will shake 
hands across the stream with a cordiality that shall know no 
discrimination. But our legislature is not content with simply 
granting charters, and then leaving the projects to linger and 
perish, with no other than a mere statutory existence; she i^ 
proposing for all of our great (or as the technical word now is) 
our tidal lines, to advance to the companies her bonds at the 
rate of seven thousand or eight thousand dollars per mile, for 
the purchase of iron-rails, locomotives, and other fixtures of the 
roads. There is every probability that such liberal pr<>\ isions 
will be made for them at the present session of that body. 
We are, therefore, profoundly in earnest: and Tennessee ten- 
ders to Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, a generous rival 
ry as to who shall first reach the proposed point on the Ten- 
nessee river with the roads in question. I need not take lime 
to point out the great advantages of such a line of road both 
to Mobile and New Orleans. The Vicksburgh, Jackson, Bran- 
don, and Montgomery road will be the first tributary. In 



546 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

northern Mississippi, I suppose not far from Jacinto, the Mem- 
phis and Charleston road would cross, which would be. the 
second ; at Nashville, the Chattanooga will be the third, swol- 
len as it will be by the junction at the latter place of the 
Charleston and Savannah, and of the Virginia and East Ten- 
nessee roads. A connection between New Orleans and Mobile 
with the Ohio at Louisville and Cincinnati, with such tributa- 
ries as these, must be of the highest importance to the cities at 
their respective termini, and to the whole region of country 
through which the road would pass. 

But it is obvious that a connection between Louisville and 
Cincinnati, however important, is not the only purpose of these 
two southern cities. They see with what steadiness of pur- 
pose South Carolina and Georgia are 'pushing forward their 
road, to some point on the Mississippi, at or near the mouth of 
the Ohio. They cannot be insensible to the consequences. If 
Charleston is determined to stand at the mouth of the Ohio, 
bidding for the amazing commerce of the North-west, New 
Orleans and Mobile will be compelled to stand there also, her 
rivals and competitors for the noble prize. I speak of com- 
petition and rivalry, of course, in no sense unworthy of those 
enlightened cities. That they may be there in good time to 
secure their just and fair proportion of advantages, I respect- 
fully beg leave to make a few suggestions to both of them. 

It is evidently impossible to make the important roads con- 
templated by them, and which it is essential to each should be 
made, without a heavy draft on the resources of both cities, and 
on those of the towns and people along the respective routes. 
Is it not, therefore, the part of wisdom and just economy in 
both, to avoid the construction of parallel and contiguous lines, 
such as would be two roads from any point of approximation 
in Northern Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio. To avoid 
doing so, I would suggest that the New Orleans road from 
Jackson, Mississippi, to the Great Bend of the Tennessee, 
should be so located an to pass the point where the Mobile 
road to the mouth of the Ohio crosses the Memphis and Charles- 
ton road by Tuscumbia. This point, I believe, is near Jacinto, 
in Mississippi. Now, from that point to the Tennessee River, 
in order to form a connection with the Louisville and Cincin- 



LETTER ON RAILROADS, ETC. 5 17 

natiroad by Nashville, and from the same point north to the 
mouth of the Ohio, a road might, and ought to be constructed 
by the united funds of both cities, or of the companies repre- 
senting them, securing by proper covenants equal rights and 
benefits of every sort to both. More especially do 1 consider 
this to be important in relation to the road running north to the 
Ohio. The distance will not fall much short of one hundred 
and seventy-five miles, and the cost of its construction not. 
much less than three millions of dollars. Half that amount 
is worth saving, and its division would lighten the burden on 
both, as well as on the intermediate towns and people who 
might be called on to contribute to its construction. The susr- 
gestion is made with a full persuasion that the road can be 
made by either, but with the strong conviction that the proper 
sense of economy, and an enlightened comity of feeling, woald 
evidently be consulted by a joint contribution to it. 

I drop the subject of railroads, in order to suggest another 
on which the South and West arc looking for your action with 
the highest interest : I mean the encouragement of manufac- 
tories — manufactories generally, but more especially of our 
great southern staple. You will never adjourn, I hope, with- 
out making the strongest appeals to our capitalists, and espe- 
cially our planters, to engage in them. The latter can build 
the houses necessary with their own hands. Two or three, or 
half a dozen, can unite in one establishment. They can select 
from their own stock of slaves, the most active and intelligent 
ones for operatives, without the necessary advances in mom \ 
to white laborers. The cost of machinery, and the expense of 
one or two others of practical experience to superintend the 
rest, will be nearly the only outlay of actual capital for the 
business. I earnestly desire to see one-fourth of southern 
slave labor diverted from the. production to the manufacture of 
cotton. One-fourth of such labor abstracted, would ^ivc a 
steadiness and elevation of prices to the raw material, which 
would better justify its cultivation. 

I have no time to elaborate this view of the subject ; I but 
hint at it, and indulge the hope, that it will be placed in the 
hands of one of your ablest committees. 

In relation to the encouragement of importations into our 



548 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

southern cities, and of direct trade between them and foreign 
countries, I do not know that I can suggest anything valuable. 
When the south shall have completed a well digested system 
of internal improvements, connecting the interior with our 
southern ports, importations will come of themselves. Ability 
to furnish assorted cargoes will soon attract a direct trade to 
the full amount of the ability of our southern cities to accom- 
modate it. This theme, also, opens too wide a field either for 
my present time or for the patience of your honorable body. 

I therefore close this communication with the most profound 
respect and confident expectation, that your deliberations will 
result in the lasting benefit of our common country. 

Very respectfully, 

AAROxN V. BROWN. 

Nashville, Tcnn. 



REPORT, 
la the Legislature of Tennessee in 1831, 



The Judiciary Committee, to whom was referred "A bill con- 
cerning free persons of color, and for other purposes," have 
had the same under consideration, and beg leave to present 
to the House of Representatives the following Report: 

The first section of the bill provides, that it shall not be law- 
ful for any free person of color, whether born free or emanci- 
pated under the laws of any other State, to remove him or her- 
self to this State, to reside therein, under the penalty of being 
indicted, and, on conviction, lined in a sum not less than ten 
nor more than fifty dollars; and moreover, to be sentenced to 
hard labor in the Penitentiary, for a term not less than one nor 
more than two years. Such persons not departing from the 
State immediately after their discharge, to be con lined in said 
Penitentiary a period double the longest term before men- 
tioned; but not to be liable for any further pecuniar} fine. The 
second section provides, that every such free person of color. 
who shall have removed to this State within twi Ire months next 
before the passage of this act, shall be required to enter into 
bond with two or more good and sufficient freehold securities, 
within six months after the passage of this act, conditioned 
that the v will demean themselves in a peaceable and orderly 
manner, and they will do all in their power to maintain 
the public peace and quiet under the same penalty as pre- 
scribed in the first section of the act, with a proviso, ex- 
cepting free persons of color who arc indented servants and 
apprentices. The third section prescribes, that any free per- 



550 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

sons of color, now in this State, and who have not emigrated to 
it within twelve months before the passage of this act, (as men- 
tioned in the second section) on complaint made, that such free 
persons of color fail to conduct themselves as peaceable and 
orderly persons, or attempt to excite a spirit of insubordination 
amongst slaves, or other free persons of color, or that they are 
generally suspected of such conduct, they may be brought by 
warrant before three justices at the court house of the county, 
and compelled, if thought guilty, to enter into a bond, payable 
to the chairman of the county court conditioned as in the second 
section. And if such justices shall believe from the particular 
case made out, that the peace and safety of the State requires 
it, said bond may be further conditioned, that they shall within 
a reasonable time, to be fixed by the justices, depart from the 
State. 

The fourth section provides, that it shall be lawful from and 
after the passage of this act, for any court to order, or any 
owner or owners of slaves to emancipate them, but on the ex- 
press condition that they shall be immediately removed from 
this State: and if they should return, the bond required to be 
given shall be recoverable and they sold as slaves. 

The fifth section requires the act to be given in charge by 
the judges and the attorney generals at every term, and the 
latter empowered to require information on oath of all sheriffs, 
coroners, constables and other persons, so as to be enabled to 
carry this act into effect. 

Your Committee regard with the deepest concern those re- 
cent events in other States, which have rendered prohibitory 
legislation like this, indispensably necessary to the repose and 
safety of the country. They indulge in no sentiments of hos- 
tility against this unfortunate portion of their fellow-creatures, 
and would most willingly, if in their power, diminish, rather 
than add a single drop to their cup of bitterness and affliction. 
The necessity for their prohibition on our part, and the incon- 
veniences to which it exposes them, is one of the evils of that 
system of slavery, which the cupidity of other generations 
have entailed upon us, and which neither the wisdom nor pa- 
triotism of modern times has yet been able to remedy. Prior 
to the Revolution, no entreaty nor remonstrance could induce 



LEGISLATIVE REPORT. f>51 

the crown of Great Britain to interpose its authority to put a 
stop to the slave trade: The royal negative was perpetually 
imposed on every effort of the Colonial legislatures to prohibit 
a commerce utterly inconsistent with all the suggestions of 
justice and humanity. Hence it was that our enemies took 
occasion to reproach us in our struggle for independence for 
imposing slavery on those who differed with us in complexion, 
whilst we were offering up our vows at the shrine of liberty, 
and sacrificing hacatombs on her altars. A proud vindication 
of our common country, against such opprobrium, may be read 
in the energy and promptness with which that nefarious traffic 
in human flesh was abolished, so soon as our National Inde- 
pendence was secured. The people of the Southern States, 
where slavery is still permitted, may also exhibit a vindication 
against their accusers, not less triumphant, in the gradual im- 
provements and humane amendments, which have been ef- 
fected in their criminal and civil jurisprudence respecting 
slaves. 

In every Southern State, the most decided disposition has 
been clearly manifested to ameliorate their condition, as far 
as the safety and the most moderate profits of the master will 
admit. Experience has, however, clearly shown, that the as- 
sociation of slaves with free persons of color, has a decided 
tendency to increase in them habits of idleness and insubordi- 
nation ; hence, masters are often compelled to resort to rigorous 
and coercive measures, bordering closely on cruelty, in order 
to obviate the effects of such associations. 

The free colored population of Tennessee is already const' 
derable, and their exclusion from some States and probable 
expulsion from others, must throw upon the State, anless she 
resort to the most energetic means of prevention, an alarming 
number of the most vicious and profligate*whicli the insurrec- 
tionary times can furnish. Many honorable exceptions could 
no doubt be made, but in the general, the free colored popula- 
tion of all the States are the most vicious and dangerous — 
deprived of many privileges, which it were unwise as well as 
unsafe to bestow on them, whilst they remain among.-t u-. they 
lose most of the ordinary incentives to industry and virtue. 
They are excluded from all equality of association with the 



552 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

whites, and very naturally betake themselves to their own color, 
intermarrying with slaves and becoming dangerous by encour- 
aging insubordination and revolt. Disaffected slaves resort to 
their habitations in the night, when no vigilence of the master 
can prevent them, where they can secretly plot and devise the 
means of robbery, murder and insurrection. Several of the 
States have already excluded them from coming into their bor- 
ders, and it is understood that others intend shortly to legislate 
with a view to similar prohibition, so that Tennessee may be 
regarded as acting defensively only, in thus guarding against a 
species of population at once degraded, vicious and dangerous. 
Urgent, however, as is the necessity, and manifest as the policy 
of such legislation maybe, still it is proper carefully to exam- 
ine the constitutional power and authority of this General 
Assembly to exclude this class of persons from emigrating to 
the State. The question seems to have been once raised in 
South Carolina, but we have had no access to documents show- 
ing whether any judicial determination was ever made upon 
it. In 1822, a conspiracy was entered into by the slaves of 
Charleston, to destroy the city and massacre its inhabitants. 
Free persons of color were believed to be the chief instigators 
of the measure ; and although it was discovered beforehand 
and resulted in the capital punishment of about thirty of the 
offenders, it gave rise to new legislation by the Assembly of 
that State in the following December. A law was passed pro- 
viding that if vessels should enter their ports either from ano- 
ther State or a foreign government, having on board any free 
persons of color as part of their crew, such persons of color 
were to be seized and confined until the departure of the vessel, 
when the Captain was required to take them away and pay 
the expenses of their detention. On his neglect, he was lia- 
ble to two months imprisonment and a fine of one thousand 
dollars, and the persons so left were to be sold for slaves. In 
the following year, the Marmion, a British vessel, arrived in 
the port of Charleston, when four of her crew, being persons 
of the description specified in the act, were taken and impri- 
soned by virtue of its provisions. These proceedings were the 
subject of a spirited remonstrance from the British Minister, 
and it seems to have been the opinion of the then Attorney 



LEGISLATIVE REPORT. 553 

General of the United States, that the act was incompatible 
both with the Constitution and existing treaties with Great 
Britain. See Perkins' Historical Sketches of the I'. States, 
page 300. South Carolina, however, resisted all applicati< 
for a repeal or modification of the statute, audit is believed 
yetto stand unaltered in her statute book. Her Executive and 
Legislature seemed alike determined to persevere in tin- m 
sure, and the Senate passed a resolve "that they have carefully 
considered the documents transmitted to them, relating to the 
laws regulating the ingress of free persons of color, and can 
as yet perceive no departure from the duties or rights of this 
State or of the United States in that law." The unconstitu- 
tionality alluded to by the Attorney General in this case, might 
have been founded on existing treaties between the two coun- 
tries regulating their commerce; and the right of the State to 
regulate the crews or description of seamen which Great Britain 
might employ whilst her vessels were in our ports, would be ;i 
question materially different from the one now under consider- 
ation. Here the question relates, not to a temporary sojourn, 
but a permanent settlement and residence, the acquisition of 
citizenship in the State, which it is perfectly competent for each 
State to regulate, unless an express provision of the National 
Constitution can be adduced, inhibiting the exercise <>f BUch 
power. The right of the citizen to remove from one State to 
another, seems not to be founded on any particular constitu- 
tional provision. No clause conferring it in express terms is to 
be found in the present Constitution or in the Articles of Con- 
federation which preceded it. It is conceived, therefore, to I 
ist on the single principle of national citizenship. As citizens 
of the Union, we should be regarded as everywhere at home, 
enjoying all the privileges which such citizenship can confer, 
derivative from the general Constitution and laws: Still, howe- 
ver, as the local sovereignties continued to exist lor all domes- 
tic purposes, and as they would have arighl to act on a great 
many rights and immunities of their own citizens, with which 
the General Government could have no participation, it became 
necessary to stipulate for the -privileges, which should be en- 
joyed as State citizens, when convenience or necessity might 
induce us to depart from one State and take up our residence 



554 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

in another. Hence, the first section of the fourth article of the 
Constitution has provided "that the citizens of each State shall 
be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the several 
States." It cannot escape notice, that no definition of the na- 
ture and rights of citizens, appears in the Constitution. The 
descriptive term is used, with a plain indication that its mean- 
ing is understood by all ; and this indeed is the general char- 
acter of the whole instrument. Except in one instance it gives 
no definitions, but it acts in all parts on qualities and relations 
supposed to be already known. See Ravvle on the Constitution, 
85, 61. What then is the meaning of the term citizen, so often 
used in the Constitution ? The President must be a natural born 
citizen — a Senator must have been nine years a citizen — a Re- 
presentative a citizen seven years, etc. The term, when com- 
monly used by political writers, means all those who owe alle- 
giance and receive correspondent protection from the govern- 
ment, and who have an unqualified right to the enjoyment of all 
the rights and privileges of society, except when those rights 
are suspended for a time, in consequence of the commission of 
crimes. Now, if an unqualified right to the enjoyment of all 
those privileges be the criterion of citizenship, it will be easily 
perceived that free persons of color, chiefly, residing in the 
Southern States, w r ere not intended to be included as such by 
the framers of the Constitution. There are three degrees of 
slavery — political, civil and domestic. The first existed in 
America before the revolution, the last now exists in relation 
to our slaves, whilst civil slavery is the condition of free ne- 
groes and mulattoes, whose civil incapacities are almost as nu- 
merous as the civil rights of our free citizens. These civil in- 
capacities, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, no 
doubt varied in the different States, greater and more numer- 
ous in some than in others. Still, in no one State whatever, 
did they enjoy all the privileges of white men : They were for- 
bidden from intermarrying with the whites ; they could not pre- 
side as judges, nor serve as jurors, nor give evidence against 
white men. In but few were they entitled to suffrage of any 
kind, or capable of filling any office whatever. Now, who can 
believe that the framers of the C onstitution intended to exalt 
persons, subject to so many disabilities in the several States, 



LEGISLATIVE REPORT. 

into Presidents, and Senators, and Representatives. Who can 
believe, with the slightest knowledge and remembrance ol 
these times, that the convention intended to sweep ;iu a\ all the 
laws of the several States and impose on the citizens thereof, 
terms of equality in rights and civil associations, equally for- 
bidden by the difference of color and the confirmed habita of 
nearly a whole country? Such a construction of the term 
citizen is forbidden by the fact, that for more than fifty yean 
since the adoption of the Constitution, the panic disabilities 
have been continued, with such alterations only as the State 
Legislatures from time to time have thought proper to make. 
The plain and obvious use of the term should therefore, as we 
conceive, be confined to the free white population of the United 
States, whose rights and liberties were everywhere the same — 
subject to no stint or limitation whatsoever. Still, however, it 
is not intended, nor necessary to assert, that free persons of 
color are in no respect to be considered as citizens of the Gen- 
eral Government. If carried away into captivity by a foreign 
enemy, or illegally impressed on the high seas, the Government 
would have a right to demand them. If the scanty rights al- 
ready secured to them should ever be violated, the judicial 
tribunals of the States, as well as those of the national gov- 
ernment, in a case where it could take jurisdiction, should be 
bound to give them relief. All that is meant to be asserted 
on this subject is, that they are not meant by, nor included as 
citizens, under that clause of the Constitution which secures to 
each the rights and immunities of the several States. Besides 
what has been heretofore urged, it may be further added, that 
the term citizen, in this clause, and many other parts of tin- 
Constitution, seems to be used only in opposition to the word 
alien, and that its only meaning was to prevent the several 
States from establishing systems of naturalization for them- 
selves different from that of the General Government. 

In ordinary cases, the slightest doubt of the constitutionality 
of our power should withhold our enactments; but Ln such B 
one as this, where self-preservation is the supreme .-md para- 
mount law of nature, nothing short of a direct and manifest 
infraction of that sacred instrument should induce us to with- 
hold that protection and safety so imperiously demanded by 



556 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



the indications of the times. "It is as much the duty of the 
State to guard against insubordination and insurrection, and 
to control and regulate any course which might excite or pro- 
duce it, as to guard against any other evil, political or physical. 

If a generous philanthropy should enquire, where this unfor- 
tunate race shall find a home when all the States shall have 
excluded and driven them out, the American Colonization So- 
ciety, with the probable co-operation of the government, will 
point to Sierra Leone and Liberia, as the future residence of 
this devoted people. 

Under a review of the whole subject, your committee beg 
leave to'recommend the passage of the bill, with certain amend- 
ments to its provisions, to be designated by their Chairman. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

A. V. BROWN, Chairman. 



AN ARGUMENT, 
Against Capital punishments, reported by order of the Judinut y 
Committee, in support of a bill abolishing such punishments as 
to all free persons in the State of Tennessee. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Vanity itself, however great, could hardly induce us to ex- 
pect to supersede the labors of Montesquieu, Rush, Beccaria 
and many others, against the improper infliction of capital 
punishments. We must entirely mistake the foundation of 
our own learning, and, in a good degree, the sources of our 
own humane and benevolent feelings, were we not to admit to 
the fullest extent, the high claims of those distinguished and 
eloquent advocates in the cause of humanity. They have, 
however, in writing on many other subjects, condensed their 
views and arguments on this one, into the small compass of a 
single chapter, without taking time to enlarge, illustrate and 
enforce it. This brevity has no doubt arisen from a conviction, 
that errors accumulated through so many generations, and 
supported by so many passions of the human heart, could 
never be overturned. Results, though they have not realized 
all the hopes of the benevolent, have, by no means, correspond- 
ed with their despondence. Next to the general diffusion of 
knowledge, and the wide extension of religions principles, Ut« 
enlightened humanity of the age is to be attributed to tin -ir 
generous exertions. They planted the root of that tree whose 
blossom is now so pleasant to look upon, but whose full matu- 
rity must be expected at some future period. 

If, in making this further effort in behalf of the few against 



518 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

the many — of the weak and the oppressed against the mighty, 
should this argument fail to add anything valuable, we will 
not so much regret our want of success in writing, as we will 
long deplore the infatuation of society, in continuing to shed 
the blood of so many human beings. We do not aim entirely 
at originality ; our sole object being to reform society in its 
habits of thinking and feeling on this important subject, every 
thins we have either read or heard, which is considered valua- 
ble, will be brought forward and insisted on; hence, it should 
be regarded more as a mere compilation, than an original pro- 
duction. 

If men were like the trees of the forest, that die and fall and 
return to dust again, or, if after death they vanish into eternal 
insensibility as though they had never been, we would not 
thus earnestly complain of their destruction. The toils and 
perplexities of life would then often make it desirable to return 
to that gross element out of which chance or destiny had form- 
ed them. 

He who would pierce their clay tenement with a dagger, or 
destroy it with a pistol, would often perform the highest act of 
kindness and love. But their souls are immortal, their spirits 
have been despatched by the great father of spirits on a pil- 
grimage to earth ; their happiness or misery through eternity, 
depends on their moral state or condition when leaving the 
world. Who shall say when that pilgrimage shall close ? Shall 
poor mortal man, himself a pilgrim, shuddering every moment 
of his life at the dreadful accountability which awaits his own 
soul, shall he fix the awful period when the spirit of his frail 
brother-child of the dust, shall return to him who gave it ? — 
Surely He, and He alone, knows best when to recall them, who 
sent them forth, and whose high purposes they were, intended 
to accomplish. The responsibility of extinguishing human 
life, is the greatest that can be incurred on this side of eternity. 
This responsibility may be parcelled out amongst so many in- 
dividuals — the Legislators, the judges and jurors of the country, 
that none may be able to feel and realize its full weight ; yet 
all should remember that it still continues to exist somewhere; 
and that every drop of human blood, wrongfully shed, will con- 
tinue to cry from the ground like Abel's, until Heaven shall 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 

avenge it. To the law-makers, however, of ever} rn- 

ment, this enquiry is chiefly addressed. They constitute 
fountain whence the streams of bitterness and death beeii 
flow. All the errors of judges, the ignorance of jurors and 
corruptions of witnesses, are, in some sort, chargeable on thi 
for attempting to usurp the high prerogative of Heaven, and 
then delegating it to such frail and imperfect instruments < t 
mortality. The enactment of bad laws by the sovereign 
probably worse than the violation of good ones by the budj< 
because the first is supposed to act with deliberation, and with- 
out any extraordinary inducement to do wrong, whilst the 
second is often the victim of some sudden and overwhelming 
passion, which it was scarcely possible for his nature to ree 

" Mercy to him that shews it is the rule, 

******** 

And he that shews none being ripe in years 
And conscious of the outrage he commits, 
Shall seek it and not find it in his turn."— [Cot. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN LAWS. 



The world has been much amused with a variety of ii 
nious conjectures about the original condition of mankind: — 
whether it was asocial, or, what writers have commonly called, 
a state of nature. The Poets of antiquity have often alluded 
to the latter state, and by their golden, silver and iron agi 
illustrated their opinions of it. Historians and moralists also, 
abandoning their search after facts, have sometimes wandered 
far into the regions of imagination, and submitted many wild 
suppositions, instead of the sober realities of truth. An* 
the writers who have attempted to distinguish, in the human 
character, its original qualities, and to point out the limits be- 
tween nature and art, some have represented mankind intl 
first condition, as possessed of mere animal sensibility, wit! 
any exercise of the faculties, that render them superior ta 
brutes— without any political union, without any mean 
explaining their sentiments, and even without possessing 
of the apprehensions and passions, which the voice and 
37 



560 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

gesture are so well fitted to express. Others have made the 
state of nature to consist in perpetual wars, kindled by com- 
petition for dominion and interest, where every individual had 
a separate quarrel with his kind, and where the presence of a 
fellow creature was a signal for battle.* 

From both of these conditions, mankind have been supposed 
to have emerged, and to have formed societies from a great 
variety of motives, — their fears, their affections, their interests, 
and in fact, their almost every well ascertained motive of ac- 
tion has been given by some one or other of these writers, as 
their inducement for forming a regular system of political 
government. 

Against all these theories, in which imagination has been 
substituted for reality, and the provinces of reason and poetry 
strangely confounded, the history of man, as given in the Bible, 
should have been considered as conclusive. In that history, 
more authentic than all others, he is represented to have been 
created in a social state : — "male and female created he them." 
The increase and extension of the first society, its manners, 
occupations and laws are there given, with a minuteness and 
clearness that dissipate at once all the hypothesis of which we 
have been speaking. At the period when the blood of Abel 
was made to stream around the simple altar of his devotion, 
settlements had been extended to the land whence his mur- 
derer was banished. The decendanta of Cain built up cities, 
resided in tents, became artificers in brass and in iron, and 
handled the harp and the organ. 

The first society of all, planted in a place wholly devoted to 
the worship of God, needed no human legislation. Its happy 
members, two only in number, holding sweet and constant 
communication with their divine Creator, knew of no law 
necessary to their being, save a single prohibition. It was not 
until all the blooms of Paradise had withered, and the flaming 
sword of the cherubim had been planted on its gates, that the 
restraints of human laws became necessary. Over the first 
family the father was the natural protector and law-giver, and 
became sofor his wife, by the express direction of the Almighty. 



*Furguson on civ. society. 



OX CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 5G1 

in the malediction pronounced on Eve, " eris sub polestatem 
tui piti" It is hardly probable that the authority of the first 
parent continued over his decendants during the long period of 
his life, which exceeded nine hundred years, since in that time 
the population of the world exceeded several millions, and was 
no doubt scattered over an immense space of country. Did 
his authority extend over his own children during that period, 
and they in their turn, become the law-givers for their children ? 
Or did it cease on their arrival at maturity, or whenever they 
left the domicil of their father? 

Reason would suggest the latter as the proper period for 
the termination of parental authority, and it is certain that it 
must have been a very slender government which Adam could 
have exercised over Cain, after he had been driven to the land 
of Nod. In this view of the subject, the first societies consist- 
ed of families, and the first governments were patriarchal. 
When, however, a number of families, from the ties of kindred, 
from desire of gain, from a sense of individual weakness, or 
other motive whatsoever, became associated into one political 
compact, all patriarchal authority having terminated, they evi- 
dently had, and, no doubt, exercised the right of establishing 
the principles of their association, restricted only by the para- 
mount laws of the Deity. These principles might all be deter- 
mined at once by express stipulation, or be the result of long 
continued usage founded on the implied assent of the different 
members of society. The same rights attach to every govern- 
ment or association of men down to the present day. They 
extend to the acquisition and protection of property, of repu- 
tation, of public liberty, and indeed, to all the lawful objects 
of political association. The conditions or terms on which 
these associations are formed constitute their laws, and consist 
in the voluntary sacrifice or surrender of a certain portion of 
individual rights for the greater security and enjoyment of the 
balance. Every individual would choose to put into the public 
stock the smallest portion possible, — as much only as was suf- 
ficient to engage others to defend it. The aggregate of these 
the smallest portions possible, forms the right of punishing; 
all that extend beyond this is abuse, not justice.* 



*Beccaria. 



5G2 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

History, and our own experience, clearly show that, no ar- 
gument, however convincing — no eloquence, however moving, 
is sufficient to ensure obedience to either the moral or social 
law. This is true of our species in every age and under every 
condition, whether dwelling in caves, in tents or in cities. 
Hence, the necessity of that branch of public policy usually 
called the criminal law. Temporal punishments operating on 
the senses of mankind, producing pain of body or anguish of 
mind, have been universally resorted to. These punishments 
may clearly extend to the privation of all social benefits and 
advantages. These, society gave, and can, therefore, take 
away. Hence, banishment was a frequent punishment under 
the Grecian and Roman governments, as transportation is at 
this day by the laws of Great Britain. Can they, however, be 
rightfully extended to the destruction of human life — to the 
dissolution of that union between soul and body, ordained by 
the Almighty, and too mysterious for mortal comprehension ? 



THE EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED ASSENT OF INDIVIDUALS. 

The rigfit of society to deprive any of its members of life, 
is claimed on the ground of his actual or implied assent to that 
condition of the social compact at the time of his admission 
into it. It must be evident that an actual assent has but rare- 
ly, if ever, been given. Governments have never been organ- 
ized at once, with all their laws, civil and criminal, in full ma- 
turity. Their origin is commonly hidden in the darkness of 
antiquity, where no record can be seen to inform us what were 
the ceremonies of their commencement. The American gov- 
ernments constitute a proud and striking exception, in the time 
and manner of their origin ; but in none of these has an actual 
assent been given by the citizens to the laws, either civil or 
criminal. When or where have they ever been assembled to 
give such an assent? 

The right in question must, therefore, chiefly depend on the 
implied assent of individuals — from their continuing in society 
after they have arrived at the age of sound discretion. At such 
an age, it were almost impossible that man should leave socie- 
ty. His social habits which the law has encouraged — his ties 
pf kindred, which the law has commanded him to regard, even 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 503 

his very religion, to which the law has been as an handmaid, 
all chain him to the spot of his nativity, and repel him from the 
forest or the desert. -In such a state of moral duress, will the 
law exact even an implied promise to its obedience — obedience 
too, even unto death ? 

Suppose, however, such an assent given— nay, more : sup- 
pose an actual assent given, in proper person, by every individ- 
ual member of a community, that certain crimes should be pun- 
ished with death ; I ask, have they a right to give such an as- 
sent, or to enter into such a stipulation? They have no right 
to authorize others to do that which they are not authorized to 
do themselves. No man ever had a right to take away his 
own life ; — it is not his own to take — it is the high and unaliena- 
ble gift of his Maker ! Who, then, should dare to extinguish 
that vital flame which God has kindled ? Who shall dare im- 
piously to war against the purposes of Heaven, and with his 
hands reeking with his own blood, rush, uncalled for, into the 
presence of Deity ? The dagger, the pistol, the poisoned chal- 
ice, and the halter, have, indeed, achieved many suicidal con- 
quests, but not until all the high born faculties of their victims 
lay prostrate in derangement. If our life ever become a bur- 
den to us, our crimes and follies have made it so ; and we should 
so live, that in deep repentance we might atone for them. No 
argument can be necessary at the present day to establish the. 
proposition, — the command of the Decalogue — "thou shalt not 
kill ;" many precepts of our Saviour and his Apostles, and all 
the first principles of our nature are opposed to suicide, and 
nothing in favor of it but downright insanity. In some coun- 
tries the laws attempt, even, to punish it as a crime. The body 
of him who comes to a voluntary death, is drawn on a hurdle 
and pierced with a stake ; his memory is rendered infamous, 
his family disgraced, and his estate forfeited.* Since, then, 
no individual, whether living alone on some distant island, 
or residing in the crowded city of civilized life, has any right 
to take away his own life, I ask, how can he delegate that right 
to another? How can he hand over the halter to society and 
say, here it is, although lhave no right to use it myself, yet you 

*Voltaire's Commentary. 



564 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

are hereby authorized, with it to terminate my existence when- 
ever you may think proper? Jn nature, can the stream ever 
rise higher than the fountain ? In law, can the agent have 
more authority than the principal ? In reason, can a man give 
to others what he has not ; or can he give more than he hath ? 
It is inexpressibly painful to dwell on such gross absurdities. 
The right of society to destroy the image of God on earth, 
must, therefore, be sought for from some other quarter than 
either the expressed or implied delegation of it, by its indi- 
vidual members. 



THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

In deriving this right, a distinguished author has drawn a 
distinction between offences against the laws of nature and 
those against the laws of society — between crimes mala in se, 
and such as are only mala prohibita. The right of punishing 
the first, as murder and the like, with death, is, in a mere state 
of nature, vested in every individual — whereof, Cain, the first 
murderer, was so sensible, that we find him expressing his ap- 
prehensions that whoever should find him would slay him.* 

We have heretofore attempted to show that this state of 
mere native never did exist but in the dreams of poetry. The 
savage and uncultivated state has, no doubt, often existed, in 
which men have lived in the desert, little superior, in enjoy- 
ment, to the lion and the tiger, and much his inferior in 
strength and safety. But the natural, as opposed to the so- 
cial state, never did, and of course the laws of nature, as a 
code for the government of men, in that condition, cannot be 
referred to without the most evident absurdity. To suppose 
men to be out of their natural state, so soon as they begin to 
form plans of government, and to invent the useful and orna- 
mental arts of life, is as irrational as to suppose ants to be 
out of their natural state when they store up their hoards for 
winter, or bees when they construct combs for their honey. y 
There are, however, certain principles attached to our nature, 
and inseparable from our being; they are not enrolled on parch- 
ment, but are engraved on the hearts of all men; they belong 
to them in every condition, in the cave as well as the palace — 

* 4 Bl. Com. ch. 1. f Sull. view of nat. 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 505 

in the desert as well as the city. If these constitute the laws 
of nature, their existence is most cheerfully admitted. The 
right of self-defence, common alike to the reptile and the man, 
is one of them, by virtue of which, not only individuals, but so- 
cieties may, in certain cases, be justified in taking away hu- 
man life. These cases will be hereafter specified, rare in 
their occurrence, and always dependant on the fact of total 
inability in the government otherwise to protect itself. 

The case of the first murderer can hardly be considered an 
apt illustration of any other law of nature than that of self- 
preservation. Why did Cain feel such apprehensions, that 
whoever might find him out would slay him? Not from any 
law which had ever been enforced among mankind in a state 
of nature or previous to any social connexion, for they had 
never lived in such a state, and of course had never been sub- 
ject to any such law; not as alleged by an eminent divine,* 
because all the inhabitants of the earth were of one family, 
and each having the right to kill the murderer of his relative, 
for this was the first murder ever committed. Mankind were 
taken by surprise and had scarcely legislated in advance 
against sifch a crime. The law, or custom, that the nearest 
relative might avenge the death of his kinsman, must have 
taken rise much later in the world, after repeated acts of the 
same kind had suggested the idea to mankind. These appre- 
hensions must have arisen from the terrors of a guilty con- 
science. He had just looked upon death for the first time ; the 
pale and bleeding corpse of his brother was ever before his 
imagination, and the terrible denunciations of Heaven were 
even then ringing in his ears. No wonder, if in every hand he 
expected to find the flaming sword of vengeance ! Nor do 
these fears seem to have been entirely groundless. The news 
of his horrid, and till now unheard of crime, no doubt flew far 
and wide in every direction. The minds of men were filled 
with astonishment and alarm. They would hear, too, that this 
fugitive and vagabond had been cursed from the earth by the 
Almighty himself. In such a state of excitement, to what 
might not their fears for their own safety, and a belief that they 

*Adam Clark. 



566 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

would be doing "God service," have prompted them ? So the 
Lord put a mark on Cain, not for his guilt only, for that, by 
establishing his identity and perpetually reminding mankind 
of his crime, would evidently have increased his danger; but 
a mark which, besides proving his guilt, would also admonish 
the rest of mankind against his destruction. One conclusion, 
however, may be fairly drawn from this case, which is certain, 
and too important to be overlooked : Whether these apprehen- 
sions were founded on the laws of nature, as alleged by Black- 
stone, or on the law of one relation's avenging the death of ano- 
ther, either is expressly repealed, and sevenfold vengeance de- 
nounced against all who might attempt to enforce them. If 
not founded on either of these laws, but on a spirit of ven- 
geance or the fears of mankind, they are forbidden to be in- 
dulged under the same severe penalty. 

Why was the punishment annexed to the slaying of Cain to 
be sevenfold greater than his, for slaying his brother? No 
case could hardly ever equal it in atrocity — none at all events 
could ever surpass it in that proportion. May it not have been 
done from a knowledge on the part of Deity, that from some 
principle in our fallen nature, difficult of specification, so 
strong would be the inclination to usurp the high prerogative 
of deciding on life or death, which he was determined to retain 
in his own hands, that nothing less than so great a penalty 
would be sufficient to restrain it. If the principle of self-de- 
fence be that law of nature referred to by Blackstone, it per- 
fectly accords with the doctrine of this essay, and in deriv- 
ing the right in question, that able commentator lays down 
the following rule : "To shed the blood of our fellow crea- 
ture is a matter that requires the greatest deliberation and 
the fullest conviction of our own authority; for life is the 
immediate gift of God to man, which neither can he resign nor 
can it be taken from him, unless by the command or permission 
of Him who gave it, either expressly revealed or collected from 
the laws of nature or society by clear and indisputable demon- 
stration."* How can the command or permission here spoken 
of be collected from the laws of society? They condemn the 

*4B1. Com. ch. 1. 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 567 

traitor and murderer to death, "clearly and indisputably;" but 
do they do so by the command or permission of Deity ? This 
can never be learned from human laws, but must be searched for 
in the paramount code of Divine legislation. Unless the ex- 
pression be strictly confined to those who attempt to exercise 
judicial functions, it evidently impairs a rule which we believe 
to be perfect without it. 



THE SUPPOSED NECESSITY OF SUCH PUNISHMENT. 

Its exercise is often justified by writers, and some, too, of 
great eminence, on the score of necessity — "that inexorable 
tyrant, which, with an iron sceptre, rules the universe." It is 
admitted that society has a right to defend itself against the 
lawless encroachments of either its own members or of for- 
eign enemies; and that if this defence cannot be made effec- 
tual without taking away the life of the assailant, it may right- 
fully do so on the great principle, stated in a former chapter, 
of self-defence. The same principle is allowed of by the law 
to individuals, and is so deeply engraved on the heart of every 
man as to be inseparable from his very being. Individuals, 
however, in the exercise of it, are subjected to certain rules 
and restrictions, without which it would no longer be a shield 
to defend them, but a sword of destruction wielded by cruelty 
and vengeance. Hence, the rule of law, that the assault must 
be such as to threaten the life of the individual, or some great 
bodily harm to him, and so made as to leave him no other pos- 
sible, or at least, probable means of escape. He must betake 
himself to flight, he must retreat even to the wall, e'er he is 
permitted to shed the blood of his fellow ! All this is required 
of him, as avowed by the law, from extreme tenderness to- 
wards human life. 

Apply even these rules, without insisting on others, to soci- 
ety when she, in her turn, is arraigned for the many victims 
whose blood she has shed. She pleads justification and in- 
sists that all her capital punishments were inflicted in self-de- 
fence ; that one plotted treason against her, another imbrued 
his hands in another's blood, and a third counterfeited or cor- 
rupted her coin. 

These did, indeed, threaten her existence, or at all events, 



568 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



some great bodily harm; but had she no other possible, or even 
probable means of escaping their meditated mischiefs? I ask 
this question again of every civilized nation on earth, had you 
no other possible or probable means of defending yourselves 
against traitors, murderers and counterfeiters, but by resorting 
to the wheel, the halter or the guillotine? Thousands of 
these you have launched from time into eternity with all their 
sins green and blooming upon them; — had you no other alter- 
native? Could you not have banished or transported them to 
some distant shore, far from any possibility of their future an- 
noyance? Or could you not have doomed them to perpetual 
slavery, shutting them out, not for a few years, but forever, 
from that society, of whose benefits they were indeed unworthy? 
Your punishments, then, would have been confined to their 
bodies, and you would have allowed to their souls that space and 
opportunity for repentance, without which neither the king on 
his throne, the judge clothed in ermine, nor the poor wretch 
trembling under the gallows, can ever see the face of God in 
peace. In either of these situations (banished or imprisoned 
for life,) they would have been, in fact, dead to society, but 
alive to the upbraidings of a guilty conscience — the punishment 
of God on,man whilst on earth, and the foretaste of that fiery 
indignation which, without the deepest repentance, awaits him 
in eternity. 

Such complaints as these, it is true, would not apply to all 
nations, nor to the same nation in every condition. The fam- 
ily of Noah leaving the ark of their deliverance and descend- 
ing the mountain that they might find a subsistance in the cul- 
tivation of the plains, had not the means of banishing or im- 
prisoning for life any of its members who might prove refrac- 
tory. The same admission may be extended to the Grecian, 
Roman and American colonies, and, in fact, to every nation 
in the youthful dawn of its existence. When, however, it has 
attained to something like maturity, with a population ade- 
quate to its protection — with a commerce that secures enough 
of national wealth, with, indeed, enough of every thing (save 
humanity) which would enable it to make successful defence 
against the lawless and unprincipled — the death of a citizen 
can never be necessary but in a single case : when, though 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 5(J0 

deprived of his liberty, he has such power and connexion as 
may endanger the security of the nation, when his existence 
may produce a dangerous revolution in the established form of 
government; but even then, it can only be necessary when a 
nation is on the verge of recovering or losing its liberties, or in 
times of absolute anarchy, when the disorders themselves hold 
the place of laws. But in a reign of tranquility, in a form of 
government approved by the united wishes of the nation, in a 
state well fortified from enemies without and supported by 
strength within, and opinions, perhaps, more efficacious, where 
all power is lodged in the hands of a true sovereign — where 
riches can purchase pleasures and not authority, there can be 
no necessity for taking the life of a subject.* 

This argument of self-defence is sometimes presented in ano- 
ther aspect. It is said society may take away the lives of its 
members, not only to prevent their future depredations, but for 
the purpose of deterring others from the commission of like 
offences; as it is said in one of the old books u ut poena ad pu.it- 
cos, metus ad omnes pe?veniat." This proposition can be ad- 
mitted in this argument only so far as it relates to the mode or 
manner of inflicting capital punishments, but not as the foun- 
dation of a right to do so. In all cases where nations are 
justified on the score of self-defence, to inflict the punishment 
of death they may direct, as matter of policy, their executions 
to be made in public, that the rest of the community may profit 
by the example. Suppose, however, that society were to 
determine that all accusations, trials and executions touching 
human life, should be conducted in profound secrecy — that the 
result should never be made known to the world, would the 
right in question be imperfect because the punishment of death 
was not inflicted before the multitude? Nations have often 
found it necessary, from motives of state policy, from a threat- 
ened rescue, from an apprehended tumult, to inflict their pun- 
ishment in a dungeon. Were all these executions unauthor- 
ized, were they so many judicial murders, only because the 
horrid spectacle was not exhibited to the sympathizing or in- 
furiated multitude ? 

*Beccaria. 



570 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

The strength of this argument consists in the supposition 
that without such punishments crimes would become so fre- 
quent as to threaten the existence of society. "Was the vast 
territory of all the Russias worse regulated under the late 
Empress Elizabeth, than her more sanguinary predecessors? 
Is it now, under Catharine the second, less civilized, less social, 
less secure ? And yet we are assured that neither of these 
illustrious princesses have throughout their whole administra- 
tion inflicted the penalty of death?"* The punishment of 
murder, by death, has been proved to be contrary to the order 
and happiness of society, by the experiments of some of the 
wisest legislators in Europe. The Empress of Russia, the King 
of Sweden, and the Duke of Tuscany, have nearly extirpated 
murder from their dominions by converting its punishment into 
the means of benefiting society and reforming the criminals 
who perpetrate it.f Actual experiments of a total abolition 
are not very numerous, but nearly every government in the 
civilized world has made partial ones that ought to be satisfac- 
tory. Is the British government less secure for having reduced 
the number of her capital felonies from about two hundred to 
twenty or thirty ? What government has been weakened or en- 
dangered by abolishing the punishment of death for heresy and 
for witchcraft? The gradual amelioration of the criminal code, 
so far from weakening, has, no doubt, in many countries, in- 
creased the actual strength of the government, in drawing 
around it the rational approbation of the age — by the explo- 
sion of those ancient barbarities which are now justly regarded 
with the deepest abhorrence. Will no punishment short of 
death, in the cases which still remain capital, after all the im- 
provements in criminal jurisprudence, be equally safe for so- 
ciety, by equally deterring men from the commission of crimes ? 
We say an equal effect, because, after thousands of experi- 
ments, in which death has been inflicted in every variety of 
manner, with all the torture and ignominy which the human 
mind could invent, it has proven utterly insufficient for that 
purpose. Men have been strangled to death — have been burnt 
alive at the stake — have been torn asunder by trees fastened to 

*4 Bl. Com. ch. 1. t Rush's Essays. 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 571 

their limbs — have been devoured by wild beasts — have been 
beheaded at the block, and hung up by the neck under the 

gallows, in every age and almost every nation of the earth 

still, treason, and murder, and robbery, and all the long cata- 
logue of capital offences, are daily committed by men who will 
not take warning from these bloody threatenings of the law. 
Is it not time, therefore, to try some new remedy — to resort to 
some different mode of punishment, more beneficial in its ope- 
ration on society — more clearly within the pale of its authority 
to inflict, and more consonant with the precepts of that benign 
religion, which, whilst it declares the sufferer to be a frail child 
of the dust, also proclaims him an heir of immortality. 



THE RIGHT AS SUPPOSED TO BE FOUNDED ON DIVINE REVELATION. 

Having seen that human life, from the nature of its gift, can 
be taken away only by the command or permission of Him who 
gave it, our enquiry is now directed to — whether such com- 
mand or permission has ever been given. Prior to the deluge 
there seems to have been no express law against murder; — no 
precept having been delivered on the subject, mankind was 
left to that innate horror and consciousness of its improprity, 
which, during the period of two thousand years, with only one 
or two exceptions, was found sufficient for its prevention. 
This is the more remarkable, because, in the latter part of that 
period, so great was the depravity and wickedness of man, that 
the very windows of Hea,ven were opened and the foundations 
of the great deep were broken up for his destruction. The 
murder of Abel is probably the only one recorded from the 
creation to the flood. What is said of Lamech is too obscure 
to be much relied on.* Some have doubted the correctness of 
the translation, and insisted that it should be read interroga- 
tively ; others have supposed that Lamech had slain a man 
in self-defence ; and that he delivered this speech to his wives to 
quiet fears entertained by them, lest the nearest kinsman might 
avenge the deed ; whilst St. Jerome indulges a rather silly 
conceit, that he had, by accident, in some way or other, taken 
away the life of Cain. If, however, it be taken literally, ac- 

— — — ■ - '• ■ ■ — ■ ■ y > 

♦Genesis, ch. 4, 23. 



572 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

cording to our common translations, it will only prove that two 
murders instead of one were committed in the antedeluvian 
world. The punishment of Cain was the first precedent fur- 
nished to mankind. It was not pronounced by any human tri- 
bunal subject to the errors and imperfections of hnmanity; — 
not even by Adam, the natural lawgiver and judge of the 
world, who had received the lessons of wisdom from the very 
lips of his Creator, and on whose heart all the original impres- 
sions of his nature were yet bright and distinct. No ! God him- 
self who made him and threw around him all the incidents of 
his being, becomes his judge and executioner. No gibbet is 
erected — no rack of torture is prepared for him; — these are the 
inventions of weak and angry men. He is banished from so- 
ciety — a mark of his crime, and of his destruction being pro- 
hibited, is placed upon him — he is subjected to the necessity 
of labor, and in his conscience is fixed a never dying worm. 
This was the judgment of the Most High God, and is, there- 
fore, exempt from every possibility of error. It was pronounced 
on the first offender, and in a case, since then, never surpassed 
in deep atrocity. 

The first portion of the sacred writings supposed by Sir 
William Blackstone to confer this right, is the sixth Noahic 
precept — " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood 
be shed, for in the image of God made he man*" Some have 
supposed this passage to be prophetic of what mankind would 
do on the principle of revenge, and not a command or permis- 
sion making it lawful to inflict the punishment of death. With- 
out insisting on this construction, which has the sanction of 
several illustrious names, it may be safely asserted that these 
precepts delivered to Noah were not intended to be perpetually 
binding on the human family ; but were to continue in force 
only until the publication of some other code should take place, 
more minute in its details and more ample in its provisions. 
The former race of mankind, with all their laws and institu- 
tions had been swept away and destroyed by the waters of 
death. The only survivors, whilst standing around the rude 
altar, hastily reared in gratitude for their deliverance, received 
these seven precepts or laws for their government. They were 
few in number — not reduced to writing nor engraven on tables, 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 573 

and capable of preservation only in the slippery memory of 
those who heard them. They were, therefore, temporary in 
their nature, and embraced those subjects only which were ab- 
solutely necessary in their peculiar situation. In the designs 
and purposes of Providence, it seems to have been of vast im- 
portance to re-people the earth and re-supply it with those 
various animals which had been so lately destroyed. Such 
was its solicitude, if the expression be allowed, to repair the 
universal desolation of the deluge, that every one of these 
seven commandments, or precepts, seems to have been given 
with that view. "Be ye fruitful — multiply and replenish the 
earth," is the first and seventh. "The grant of animal food — 
the earth having become less fruitful," is the second and third. 
"The prohibition of the blood of animals," is the fourth. "Cru- 
elty to animals," is probably the meaning of the filth; and 
the sixth is the one now under consideration. This brief 
analysis will serve to show with what view the expres- 
sions were introduced — "whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man 
shall his blood be shed." The little family of Noah was a 
germ from which all the future nations of the earth were to 
vegetate ; every possible care must therefore be taken for its 
preservation. The means of self-defence must be amply ade- 
quate to its protection, against all attempts to destroy it, 
even to retard its progress. For a long time this infant society, 
on whose growth and enlargement Divine Providence seems 
to have been so intent, would not have been able, by the ban- 
ishment or imprisonment of the refractory, to insure its safety. 
Hence the right was expressly given, to take away the life of 
its members, there being no other probable means of effectua- 
ting the purposes of Heaven in their preservation. 

The exclusive power of Deity, over human life, is said to 
have been committed to his creatures, in the law delivered to 
Moses amid the fire and the smoke of Mount Sinai. This law 
has been correctly divided into the moral, political andjudicial. 
The first, commonly called the decalogue, or ten command- 
ments, comprising an interesting and sublime system of moral 
government, is universal in its operation, and perpetual in its 
obligation. The two latter have never been so considered. 
They constitute a civil code for the government of the Jews only, 



574 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

exclusively confined to them, until they become dispersed over 
the world, without a king, without a prince and without a sac- 
rifice. Their authority commanding the infliction of capital 
punishments^is no more binding on a Christian nation, than the 
laws of Media or Persia, or of those various tribes that were 
driven from Canaan by the sword of the Lord and of Joshua. 
Nor is it conceived, that they are entitled to any weight, even 
as examples permitting the destruction of human life, by modern 
nations. The Jews have always claimed, and have been well 
entitled to, the appellation of a peculiar people. Every thing 
connected with them seems to be miraculous. That they, so 
stiff-necked and rebellious, should have been selected as God's 
chosen people — that the waters of the Red Sea should have 
been divided for their escape — that a cloud by day, and a pil- 
lar of fire by night, should have directed their journeyings, — 
that their drink should have been made to gush from the sides 
of the rock, and their food to rain down from the clouds,— that 
their laws should have been written by the hand of God, and 
delivered on Horeb to judges and priests raised up and inspir- 
ed to carry them into execution, — is all a continual succession 
of miraculous events, in the providence of God, toward the 
Jewish Nation. How strange, then, is the notion, that the po- 
litical, judicial, or ceremonial laws of such a people should be 
incorporated in any system of modern government ! Never 
was there before or since, so rebellious a people, and never 
were such extraordinary means necessary to keep a nation in 
subjection. Even at the time when their leader and deliverer 
was receiving these very laws amidst the most sublime and 
awful demonstrations at the power and grandeur of a God, this 
wayward people set themselves to dancing, in idolatrous wor- 
ship, around an image of gold ! Hence, many laws were given, 
peculiarly adapted to them, but probably not suited to any other 
nation in the world. Their Divine Legislator expressly de- 
clares, " 1 gave them statutes that were not good, and judg- 
ments whereby they should not live." The law of divorces 
and retaliation were evidently of this description, and were 
intended as curses, not as blessings on the Jewish Nation. 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 5?5 

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

As it is the general and almost universal habit of those who 
advocate the infliction of capital punishments, to run to the 
Mosaic law, it may not be amiss to pursue this part of the sub- 
ject a little farther. The Jewish government was a Theocracy, 
in which the judges, who were to carry the laws into execution, 
were but the especial ministers of Heaven raised up and in- 
spired for that purpose. They were, therefore, perfectly ex- 
empt from all error and corruption in judgment, and even in- 
capable of being misled by the perjury, or deceived by the 
ignorance of witnesses ; -they pronounced the very jndgment 
in all cases, that God himself, had he presided on earth, would 
have pronounced. With judicial tribunals so divinely organ- 
ized and superintended, a system of laws might well be given 
to that nation, which would be altogether unsuitable to a go- 
vernment purely the work of men's hands, and whose laws 
were to be administered by uninspired judges, and often by 
very weak and very wicked ones. 

If the Mosaic Law, with respect to murder, be obligatory on 
Christians, it follows that it is equally obligatory upon them 
to punish adultery, blasphemy and other capital crimes, that 
are mentioned in the Levitical Law, by death. Nor is this all : 
it justifies the extirpation of the Indians, and the enslaving of 
the Africans ; for the command to the Jews to destroy the Ca- 
naanites, and to make slaves of their heathen neighbors, is as 
positive as the command which declares " that he that killeth 
a man shall surely be put to death." 

Every part of the Levitical Law is full of types of the Mes- 
siah. May not the punishment of death inflicted by it be in- 
tended to represent the demerit and consequences of sin, as 
the cities of refuge were the offices of the Messiah? And may 
not the enlargement of murderers who had lied to those cities 
of refuge, upon the death of a High Priest, represent the eter- 
nal abrogation of the law, which inflicted death for murder, by 
the meritorious death of the Saviour of the world.* 

We are not, however, left to general reasoning like this, to 
obviate the force of these Jewish examples. The substance of 

*Rush's Essays. 
38 



576 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

all the different passages which we have heard quoted, is to be 
found in the lex talionis. That law declared, " if any mischief 
followed, then shalt thou give life for life — eye for eye — tooth 
for tooth," &c. How many human beings have been sacrificed 
under the supposed authority of this Law ? Were they all as- 
sembled, they would outnumber the largest army that folly or 
ambition ever mustered into their service ! Yet this very law 
stands repealed, not only by the general temper and spirit of 
the Christian dispensation, but by the express declaration from 
the lips of our Saviour himself. In his sermon on the Mount, 
he expressly quotes and repeals this very law : " Ye have heard 
that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, 
but I say unto you, (I who made the first law and can repeal it 
at my pleasure.) / say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but 
whoso shall smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other 
likewise." In the same spirit of meekness and love., he refers 
to another Jewish maxim : " Ye have heard that it hath been 
said, thou shalt love thy neighbor (or friend) and hate thine 
enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies ; bless them 
that curse you ; do good to them that hate you ; and pray for 
them that despitefully use you and persecute you ; that you may 
be the children of your Father which is in Heaven ; for he 
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, andsendeth 
rain on the just and on the unjust." What pure morality ! 
What sublime disinterestedness ! This sermon alone furnishes 
conclusive internal evidence of the divine legation of Jesus 
Christ. A new era had dawned ; a new dispensation had now 
opened. The clouds and shadows of the Jewish ceremonies 
were all to be dispelled. " Those statutes that were not good, 
and those judgments whereby they should not live," were now 
to be repealed, and mankind to be instructed how, in mercy 
and forgiveness, to resemble their Father which is in Heaven. 
He makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good ; He sendeth 
rain on the just and the unjust, in token to mankind that, as 
He forgives them, and even returns good for their evil, so, also, 
should Ihcy learn to forgive one another. " Blessed are the 
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Let it not be supposed 
that this 'gospel meekness, though inculcated on individuals, 
does not embrace societies and governments in its obligation. 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 577 

These are but so many associations of individuals, and their 
moral features must necessarily resemble, and, indeed, be the 
very same with those of the members who compose them. 
That individuals must practice the pure and sublime prin- 
ciples of Christianity, whilst the government they compose may 
set at nought its precepts, would be an inconsistency too gross 
to be insisted on. Nor will it do to say that the forgiveness of 
injuries, as here inculcated, is too refined morality for the prac- 
tical government of either individuals or societies. That is 
borrowing the argument of the infidel, without having the 
courage to incur the responsibility of avowing his principles. 
This doctrine, rightly understood, is not so abstracted and diffi- 
cult of practice. It calls on individuals and societies to sur- 
render so much of their natural propensity as prompts them 
to the infliction of vengeance for supposed or real injuries. Is 
it unreasonable to require the surrender of such a passion, and 
that, too, under an express reservation, " vengeance is mine, 
saith the Lord; I will repay." Still, however, both individuals 
and societies are left at liberty to protect and defend themselves 
against the lawless and unprincipled, where passiveness and 
acquiescence would only invite to further aggressions. Now 
what is the hanging or beheading a man, but taking vengeance 
for his crime ? What is it but vengeance to require life for life, 
eye for eye, and tooth'for tooth ? When the next of kin was 
commissioned for the purpose, it was called expressly, " aveng- 
ing his kinsman's death !" When the offender made good his 
escape to the cities of refuge, were not the gates directed to be 
closed against the avengers of blood ? Yet when society seizes 
the sword from the hands of the kinsman, pursues after the 
criminal, overtakes him and becomes the hangman herself, 
ehe disclaims the appellation, either because it is degrading, 
or because she is conscious that vengeance does not belong to 
her, " but is mine, saith the Lord." Besides this express and 
positive repeal of the law of retaliation, which required life for 
life, the conduct and discourses of our Saviour should outweigh 
every argument that has been, or can be adduced, in favor of 
capital punishment for any crime. When the woman, caught 
in adultery, was brought to Him, He evaded inflicting the 
bloody sentence of the Jewish law upon her. He forgave the 



578 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

crime of murder on the cross; and after his resurrection, com- 
manded his disciples to preach the Gospel of forgiveness, first 
at Jerusalem, where he well knew his murderers still resided. 
These striking facts are recorded for our imitation, and seem 
intended to show that the Son of God died, not only to recon- 
cile God to man, but to reconcile men to each other. There 
is another passage in the history of our Saviour's life, which 
would, of itself, overset the justice of the punishment of death 
for murder, if every other part of the Bible had been silent on 
the subject. When two of his disciples, actuated by the spirit 
of vindictive legislators, requested permission of him to call 
down fire from Heaven, to consume the inhospitable Samaritans, 
he answered them, " the Son of man came not to destroy men's 
lives, but to save them." Excellent words ! I wish they com- 
posed the motto of the arms of every nation on the face of 
the earth ; and whilst I can lay my finger on this text of scrip- 
ture, I will never believe the punishment of death for any crime 
is inculcated by the spirit of the gospel.* 



THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

Beside what we have urged in the preceding chapter, it 
may be asserted that, the Christian dispensation, by " bringing 
life and immortality to light," abolished the punishment of 
death. That the patriarchs and prophets, and from them, some 
of the ancient philosophers believed in the immortality of the 
human soul, cannot be doubted ; but it was never reduced to so 
much certainty, nor so well understood until the Saviour of the 
world rose triumphantly from the sepulchre. From that mo- 
ment the soul assumed an importance which well justifies the 
exclamation, "what is a man profited if he gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul, or what shall he give in exchange 
for his soul?" That its happiness or misery through eternity, 
depends on its moral state or condition when leaving the world, 
is so distinctly asserted in the sacred scriptures, that it is uni- 
versally admitted in all religious creeds. All this gives rise to 
a very serious question, whether the infliction of capital pun- 
ishments, may not involve the eternal destruction of the soul of 

*Rush's Essays. 



ON C-\PITAL PUNISHMENT. 579 

the unfortunate victim. If permitted to live out his days, re- 
pentance deep and radical might ensure the forgiveness of 
Heaven : bat if cut off by the judgment of man and not of 
God, with all his sins thick and clustering around him, what 
will be his eternal destiny? What would have been that of 
Moses for slaying the Egyptian, or of David for murdering 
Uriah, had they been arrested, tried and executed before they 
repented and obtained forgiveness ? It is a universal law of 
religion, that repentance must always precede forgiveness, and 
that the latter is indispensable in order to obtain happiness in 
a future life. According to this law, their eternal destruction 
would have been inevitable. Yet one lived to become a distin- 
guished instrument, in the hands of Providence, of good to 
mankind, and the other to receive the most flattering and en- 
nobling title ever conferred, "that of being a man after God's 
own heart." The thought is certainly a dreadful one, that a 
human soul, because it was cut off prematurely by the judg- 
ment of men, shall be forever miserable, when, with the indul- 
gence which its Heavenly Father was willing to have given, it 
would have been received and even welcomed amongst the 
saints and angels in glory. Surely the fate of that bright em- 
anation, so indestructible in its nature, and so much beyond all 
estimation in value, has never been left thus exposed to the 
weakness and wickedness of our species ! 

It will not do to suppose the Almighty to interfere and turn 
aside the wrath of man, by pardoning those whom he might 
forsee would repent, if permitted to live out their appointed 
times : for that would admit the judgment of death to be im- 
proper, since it requires the special interposition of Providence 
to prevent its too horrible consequences. Nor will it do to 
say that human tribunals usually allow a few weeks, and even 
months, to be devoted to repentance. What profane mockery ! 
as if man should measure out the space of repentance to 
man, — putting it down on his frail records of parchment 
within what time the gracious streams of mercy shall How, or 
be forever locked up in the bosom of the Redeemer ! Suppose 
him, however, within this brief period, by meditation and 
prayer, to succeed in that repentance which bringetfa forgive- 
ness,— shall he be forgiven of God, and yet be condemned by 



580 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

men? Here, a vile culprit; there, a rejoicing angel ! On earth, 
suspended under a gallows ; in hearven, seated on a throne of 
glory ! To such strange inconsistencies society is often ex- 
posed. She gives time for repentance, yet no reformation , how- 
ever complete, and no repentance, though proven by more and 
stronger circumstances than those on which he was convicted, 
shall rescue him from his fate. — Die he must — though angels 
stand ready to conduct his repentant spirit home to paradise, 
whilst his unrelenting executioners consign his body to the 
grave of infamy. How, in the economy of Heaven, all these 
difficulties will be adjusted, we know not ; " shadows, clouds 
and darkness rest upon them." The slightest probability, how- 
ever, that the soul of the offender may be effected by the judg- 
ment pronounced against his body, ought instantly to stay the 
hand of death, and substitute perpetual confinement for the 
guillotine and the halter. This is certainly the voice of safety 
echoed back by humanity and religion. 

No apology is intended to be offered for the moral cast which 
this part of our argument has assumed : it grows out of the na- 
ture of the subject we are investigating, and particularly the 
contrast which we are attempting to exhibit between the Jew- 
ish and Christian dispensations. It is a remarkable fact which 
we take occasion to mention before we close this contrast, that 
the advocates of capital punishments, whilst catching with ea- 
gerness every expression of the Mosaic and Levitical law in 
their favor, should have entirely overlooked a most important 
provision of the latter, that human life was never to be taken 
away on the testimony of one witness. " Whoso killeth any 
person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of 
witnesses : but one witness shall not testify against any person 
to cause him to die."* "At the mouth of two witnesses, or 
three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to 
death."f How much innocent — at all events, how much doubt- 
fully guilty blood, might have been spared, had these excellent 
rules of evidence been observed. Society in anger seized on 
the sword of the Jewish law, but threw away its shield. 

♦Numbers, 36. 30. fDeut. 17. 6. 



OX CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 581 

THE FALLIBILITY OF ALL EARTHLY TRIIU NAI.S. 

As most great truths are not always believed, it is highly 
probable that universal assent will hardly be given to what has 
been urgeclin a former part of this argument, against th right 
to inflict the punishment of death. Admitting, however, for the 
present, such a right to exist, beyond the limitation of self-de- 
fence, we shall attempt to show that it is inexpedient or im- 
proper to exercise it. 

An argument against the propriety of punishing any crime 
with death may be found in the natural frailty of man, and 
consequent fallibility of every tribunal in which he presides. 
We admit, as exceptions, such as were organized under the 
Jewish Theocracy, in which Moses and Joshua, with the inspi- 
rations of Heaven constantly streaming upon them, pronounced 
judgments as much exempted from the possibility of error, as 
if they had been pronounced by God himself. We mean such 
tribunals as are composed of judges selected from the general 
mass of mankind, and who can have no claims to any miracu- 
lous or supernatural assistance in the discharge of their func- 
tions. That every government would select men of the best 
talents and of the most unimpeachable integrity for its judi- 
cial department, might be one of those presumptions, which 
like many others in law, is directly at war with the truth. — 
They are often appointed by the sovereign, from an overween- 
ing partiality, and in more popular governments, from the strug- 
gles of party, or the arts and intrigues of electioneering dema- 
gogues. Sometimes, too, the inlluence of famil}' or kindred, 
and even the general rudeness, not to say barbarity of ;i na- 
tion, may throw the ermine around them who, in a more enlight- 
ened age, would scarce deserve to be the executioners of jus- 
tice. Mistaken parsimony, however, has done more mischief 
on this subject, than all other causes beside. Governments 
will not pay, and competent men will not serve ; hence, dolts 
and blockheads often liil those places, to which the genius of 
Mansfield and Eldon, or Marshal and Pendleton, were scarcely 
competent ! To the worst, as well as the best of these, is en- 
trusted the administration of a grand and diversified s\ stem of 
law, covering the whole space of human degradation, and ex- 
panding with the endless evolutions of crimes. To commit 



582 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

the lives of men to such judges, is downright murder in socie- 
ty herself. To commit them to the judgment of any one 
judge, however highly gifted, in both legal and moral attain- 
ments, though less atrocious, is nevertheless unsafe and impro- 
per. The responsibility is too great and the consequences of 
a mistake too awful to be incurred by any one individual what- 
ever. During a long and difficult cause, amid all the perplex- 
ities of nisi prius trials, having to guard against the superior 
address of counsel on one side, and perhaps to supply the defi- 
ciency in skill on the other, he will be almost sure, to fall into 
some error, either in the admission or rejection of evidence, or 
in the application to it, of the sound principles of law. Such 
mistakes as these may result from the slenderness of his attain- 
ments in his profession, or they may be produced by that defec- 
tive organization of the human mind, which stamps imperfec- 
tion as a motto on all human exertions. Equally fatal ones 
may arise from some personal bias or habit of the judge. — 
These give weight and seriousness to a defence, or detract 
from it in exact proportion to such former bias or habit. — 
Hence the provocation, which shall extenuate murder into 
manslaughter, or the overt acts that shall constitute treason, in 
the practical charge, will be varied according to the constitu- 
tional courage, and the political connexions of the judge. — 
We say the practical charge, because it is easy for a court, by 
its manner, to produce any desired effect upon a jury, without 
subjecting itself to the liability of correction on exceptions. 
The passions and prejudices of the judge, may, in this way be 
insidiously communicated to the jury, whilst the unfortunate 
victim is rendered utterly incapable of contradicting their 
baneful influence. Even in cases where no passions nor pre- 
judices, nor even former habits have induced the error, there is 
often a pride of character which forbids a judge from making 
a distinct and fair admission of it upon record, but seeks for 
evasions and colorings, which diminish its enormity, and 
thereby prevents a reversal. The practitioner will remember 
many instances in which no solicitation could induce the court 
to look steadily in the eye of its own blunders. These and 
other objections which will readily suggest themselves to the 
reader, constitute strong and conclusive reasons, why the life 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, 583 

of man should not depend on the uncertain opinion of any one 
individual whatever. If, however, the trial must be superin- 
tended and conducted by one only, let every thing be required 
to be put upon record, and that transmitted to the highest judi- 
cial tribunal of the government, for its examination rind approv- 
al. Such tribunals are commonly composed of a plurality of 
judges of greater age and experience, and more exempt from 
those local excitements and prejudices, which too often influ- 
ence inferior courts to respond, in their judgments, to the infu- 
riated shouts of the multitude. If the sentence of death must 
be pronounced, let it be by the supreme judicial authority of 
the land. Let the warrant for execution be signed by every 
individual, so that each may feel the responsibility of the con- 
demnation. All this should be done, whether an appeal be 
prayed to that tribunal or not; because society itself should be 
unwilling to inflict death, until every possible precaution had 
been used to avoid mistakes, and because a matter of such 
high importance should never be left to the ignorance of the 
accused, or to the discretion of negligent counsel, either en- 
gaged by him or assigned by the court. 

It is usual to obviate most of these objections, by referring 
to the trial by jury, as counteracting these casual defects in 
the judges, and, in some degree, remedying even their want of 
talents and learning. The institution of jury trials would, no 
doubt, deserve those high eulogies which have been bestowed 
on it, if it were not for its complete dependence on the will and 
opinion of the judge. That rule which requires them to re- 
ceive and adopt, with implicit obedience, the charges and in- 
structions of the court in matters of law, leaves them but so 
many inefficient instruments to fill up the pageantry of judi- 
cial despotism. In those countries, where, in a l'v\v cases, they 
are allowed to be judges of both the law and the evidence, it 
very rarely happens that juries fail to adopt those opinions of 
the court, which have been clearly expressed and insisted on in 
the charge. The description of men usually selected as jurors, 
their information, habits and pursuits, render the trial, so far as 
they are concerned, merely nominal, and leaves the judge, after 
all, substantially, the sole arbiter of life and death. We would 
appeal to the experience and observation of the whole pro- 



584 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

fession to attest the fact, that in a large majority of cases, both 
civil and criminal, a plausible and ingenious judge, of pleasant 
manners, with only a moderate share of legal learning, will be 
able to extract from a jury whatever verdict he may be pleased 
strongly to intimate would be desired. Where, then, is the 
boasted safety of jury trials ? When did they ever rescue a 
single victim from the grasp of a Jeffries thirsting for blood? 
Every page of English history is stained with convictions con- 
sented to by juries, because desired by judges, who were either 
afraid to incur the displeasure of their sovereigns, or, who had 
not moral energy enough to resist some popular prejudice of 
the times. What else brought Sidney to the scaffold, or con- 
signed to the grave of infamy so many Irish patriots? Love 
of liberty was called treason, and a desire to remedy existing 
abuses was construed into rebellion ! 



THE FALLIBILITY OF HUMAN TRIBUNALS CONTINUED. 

Human tribunals are perpetually subject to errors and mis- 
takes, from the corruption and ignorance of the instruments 
which they are obilged to use in conducting their trials. Bold, 
unblushing perjury often stalks into the sacred temple of jus- 
tice, pours its envenomed poison into the ears of the jury, and 
marches out again with impunity, sure and exulting in the 
blood of its victim ! These demoniac visits are by no means 
rare. The experience of judges, the practice of the profession, 
and the observation of intelligent jurors, could tell a tale of 
horror which should make society startle at her own execu- 
tions. Yet they have seen or only suspected one of a thou- 
sand perjuries which have been committed before them. The 
rest have escaped all the probing skill of the advocate, and 
could only be attested on earth by those sleeping tenants of 
the grave, whom they have sacrificed. They have all, howev- 
er, been faithfully recorded in heaven's chancery, from which 
they shall never be obliterated, but by the deepest and most 
hearty repentance. 

... But if corruption has slain its thousands, ignorance and in- 
attention may claim a triumph more numerous and equally 
inglorious. How often has it occurred, that witnesses, from in- 
activity of mind — from mere clumsiness of intellect, have fail- 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 585 

ed to give a correct account of the transaction which they 
were called on to relate ? A look or jesturc is often of immense 
importance in criminal prosecutions. The tone of voice, wheth- 
er one of supplication or defiance, we have known decide the 
momentous question of life and death! If, however, these 
things are correctly remembered, how often are they incapable 
of presenting anything like a fac simile to the jury ? Such arc 
the practical difficulties on this subject, that a personal ren- 
countre, — in the streets — in open day — in presence of many 
persons of undoubted credibility — unincumbered by any unu- 
sual multiplicity of circumstances — will be so variously repre- 
sented as to excite the surprise of every observer, it they do 
not shake his confidence in the credibility of all human evi- 
dence. By what a frail tenure, then, do we hold our lives ! 
Our enemy may assail us in the streets ; may prostrate us in 
the dust ; may hold the uplifted dagger to our breasts, yet those 
who look upon the tragedy, misled by their alarm, or too much 
excited to refer the rapid incidents of the moment to their pro- 
per order, strangely represent us as aggressors, and instead of 
proving a shield to our innocence, become swords of destruction 
against our lives ! 

J^. Human evidence, to make even a tolerable approximation to 
truth, must come from witnesses who, beside veracity, must 
possess great faithfulness of memory, accuracy of observation, 
and clearness of discrimination. Such individuals are com- 
paritively rare in every community, and the proportion which 
they bear to the great aggregate of society, exhibits an alarm- 
ing number of chances against arriving at anything like exact 
certainty in judicial investigations. Such certainty need not 
be required in question of mere property, but there is no mcum 
and tuum in taking away the lives of our fellow beings. The 
breath which you stille was breathed into his nostrils by the 
living God — the body which you destroy was fashioned after 
his divine image — the soul which you dislodge is probably an 
emanation of his own native, uncreated, and incomprehensible 
essence ! 

Suppose, however, the witnesses not to have sworn falsely in 
any important particular, nor to have fallen into any mistake 
or misapprehension of the matter about which they testify, 



S 8 ^ MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

still, the chapter of accidents and errors has not closed yet. 
How often are jurors, from carelessness or inattention — from 
weakness or inactivity of mind, mistaken in many important 
details of the evidence ? How often is the charge of the court, 
though slowly and distinctly delivered, entirely misunderstood 
or forgotten by them in their retirement ? Ask them afterwards 
for a verbal report of the trial, and you will be astonished, in 
many cases, to hear what a rude mass they make of the evi- 
dence and senseless jargon of the opinion of the court. And 
yet jurors are generally selectee viri ; and when called by the 
government to hold its own inquests, are dignified with the title 
of "probi et legates hominis /" Although " probi et legale?;' they 
are still short-sighted and frail instruments of humanity— capa- 
ble of sleeping in the box— of forgetting what they have heard 
in the evidence— of misunderstanding the instructions of the 
court— of being led about in their opinions by a few prominent 
members of their own body — of, in fact, every thing which ren- 
ders all human investigations uncertain, and the life of man 
extremely precarious when made dependent upon them. These 
remarks are general ones, and admit of all those exceptions, 
sometimes in favor of the entire pannel, and very often, indeed, 
of individual members of it, which a sense of justice would re- 
quire should be made. 

' In all cases, the jury, under the direction of the court, must 
ascertain the measure of criminality in the accused. This 
seems to depend on the intention, or purpose of the heart with 
which an action has been performed, rather than its injurious 
effects on society. On the latter principle, the madman who 
shoots his prince is equally guilty and worthy of punishment, 
as the ambitious noble who assassinates him that he may as- 
cend his throne. So the first discovery of the process of dis- 
tilling ardent spirits, and of making gunpowder, should expose 
their authors to severities which the ingenuity of mankind has 
never yet discovered, because they have done more mischief 
than all the traitors, murderers, house-breakers, and shop-lift- 
ers, that have ever lived. These last were but so many indi- 
vidual marauders, perplexing, rather than seriously endanger- 
ing society ; whilst the former, pouring in at every pass their 
legions of vices and crimes, have committed greater havoc, 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 587 

than did those northern hordes, which once desolated Europe. 

In many cases, how is it possible to ascertain this intention 
or purpose of heart ? It is not visible nor tangible, nor the sub- 
ject of any of those senses, through which we make our near- 
est approaches to truth. If recourse be had to the accompa- 
nying outward actions, every one's experience and observation 
will show how far short these will fall of furnishing anvthine 
like certainty as to the inward motives of the mind. It is the 
very design of villainy to prevent this accordance, and its high- 
est success depends on the greatest discrepancy between its se- 
cret designs and outward actions. Hence, it has never been 
pretended, that the outward actions were infallible indicia to 
the inward motive, but that such motive can only be inferred or 
presumed from them. Now the same motive, it is known, will 
often produce adifferent set of outward actions, and that these, 

though alike, will often be the result of different motives. 

Thus the flight of the accused may be from consciousness of 
guilt, or from the alarm created by knowing he was in a situa- 
tion to be suspected; or it may be the outward action, resorted 
to by a friend to deceive the public, and, thereby, draw off sus- 
picion from the real felon. Brutus and Casius, in the assassi- 
nation of Csesar, performed about the same set of outward ac- 
tions, yet it was said the one hated the tyranny, the other the 
tyrant ; motives widely different in their character— exalting 
one to the highest elevation of Roman patriotism, and debas- 
ing the other to the meanness of envying a greatness which he 
could not rival. 

Outward and accompanying actions are, therefore, so equiv- 
ocal, that human tribunals never resort to them, to ascertain 
the certainty of the wicked intent ; for that being in the heart 
cannot be known by men, but only the different degree of pro- 
bability strengthening or weakening the presumption of such in- 
tent. The measure of criminality, is, in this way, only a mat- 
ter of conjecture— of presumption— of probability— in fact a 
mere matter of guess-work with the jury, in which they are no 
doubt sometimes right and maybe often wrong. It will not 
do to say that they are oftener right than wrong ; that may be 
admitted, and yet the solemn question be asked, whether, if 
the life of man shall be taken away with a bare majority of 



588 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

chances, that it may be right to do so? If a bare majority be 
not insisted on as sufficient, what shall be the safe and lawful 
proportion ? There is a nominal rule of the law which serves 
to decorate many of its pages, " that it is better that ninety- 
nine guilty persons should escape, than that one innocent man 
should suffer." If this rule be not taken as a mere flourish 
and show of humanity, which the law does not feel and will 
not pratice on, then it establishes a proportion of chances 
against ascertaining the motives of action from the accompa- 
nying circumstances which will substantially abrogate all cap- 
ital punishments. For who that knows any thing of human 
nature, who that has observed with even a careless eye, the 
many devices by which villainy cloaks and conceals its pur- 
poses and motives, can believe that they are ascertainable by 
evidence in ninety-nine out of one hundred cases ? They may 
be in a majority, even in a large majority of cases, but to say 
they are in so large a proportion, is imposing an excessive tax 
on the credulity of mankind. 

It is true that this want of certainty applies to every grade 
of offence, and might be urged against every degree of crimin- 
al punishment. The argument predecated on it is intended, 
however, to be applied only in favor of human life, and in 
every other case it loses its efficacy ; because society may fine 
and imprison its members, she may brand with infamy, or for- 
ever disfranchise them, on presumptions which their own follies 
or misfortunes have created. These punishments are all con- 
fined to their short stay and pilgrimage on earth, and whether 
rightfully or wrongfully inflicted, is of little consequence in the 
view of that endless existence which awaits them after death. 
But as she gave not our lives and can never restore them, on 
discovering an error in her judgment, and as its consequences 
are not confined to the body nor to time, but may run on through 
eternity, in the ceaseless agony of the soul, nothing short of 
the most absolute certainty of the most depraved and wicked 
purpose of heart could justify her in pronouncing the sentence 
of death. Such, certainly, never has been, and never can be, 
attained on earth by uninspired mortals, and should only be 
looked for in heaven, where He sits in judgment, who alone 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 589 

" can search the hearts, and try the reins of the children of 



men." 



SOME OBJECTIONS TO THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT. 

It often happens that the declared will of the legislature is 
totally different from its real one, at the time of its enactment. 
This induces judges to depart from the strict letter of the 
statute, and to resort to constructions not always correct, and 
often highly prejudicial to the accused. The vague, and some- 
times unintelligible language employed in the penal statutes, 
and the discordant opinions of elementary writers, gave a color 
of necessity to this species of judicial legislation. The statute 
gave the text, and the judges wrote the commentary in letters 
of blood. The English nation have submitted to the legisla- 
tion of its courts, and seen their fellow subjects hanged for 
constructive felonies, quartered for constructive treasons, and 
roasted alive for constructive heresies, with a patience that 
would be astonishing even if their written laws had sanctioned 
butchery.* In the different States of the American confed- 
eracy, the enactment of ex post facto laws has been expressly 
forbidden by Constitutional prohibitions. Yet the evil we now 
complain of is only half remedied, since the first constructive 
extension of a penal statute, beyond its letter, is an ex post 
facto law, as it regards the offence to which it is applied. — 
Thus, what is prohibited in the legislature, is allowed of in the 
courts, and every day submitted to by the American people. 
This illegal assumption of legislative powers is referred to, not 
so much for the purpose of condemnation under the present 
state of things, as to show that the legislature itself, — the high 
source of that high law, which is to be the rule of every man's 
actions, — is a very imperfect and fallible body. Their laws are 
sometimes so obscure that they cannot be understood by the 
judges themselves, much less by the plain unlettered yeomanry 
of the land. 

Who would expect to find, under the name of treason, a 
law punishing with death the crime of counterfeiting ! Yet 
the coining of silver is, by the English law, dignified with that 
appellation, which properly means nothing less than a conspi- 

*Livingston's Report. 



590 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

racy against the life or honor of the king, and the safety of 
the State ! Under the pompous title, — this nicknamed trea- 
son, — it obtained an easy passage through Parliament, and 
soon afterward a poor servant girl, just turned of fourteen, was 
sentenced to be burnt alive. At her master's bidding she hid 
some white-washed farthings behind her stays, on which the 
jury, yielding, no doubt, to the charge of the court, found her 
guilty as an accomplice with her master in the treason. — " Good 
God, Sir!" exclaimed an eloquent and humane member of Par- 
liament, " are we taught to execrate the fires of Smithiield, and 
are we lighting them now to burn a poor harmless child for 
hiding a white washed farthing?" 

When a member of a legislative body introduces a new 
hanging law, he begins with mentioning some injury or crime, 
for which a man is not yet liable to be hanged ; and then pro- 
poses the gallows as the specific and infallible means of cure 
and prevention. But the bill, in progress of time, from care- 
lessness in dictation, or want of ability in the draftsman, makes 
crimes capital that scarce deserve whipping. For instance, 
the shop-lifting act was to prevent bankers and silver-smiths, 
and other shops, where there are commonly goods of great val- 
ue, from being robbed ; but it goes so far as to make it death 
to lift anything off the counter with intent to steal. 

Under this act, one Mary Jones was executed, whose case I 
shall just mention : It was at a time, when press-warrants 
were issued on the alarm about the Falkland Islands. The 
woman's husband was pressed, their goods seized for some 
debts of his, and she with two small children turned into the 
streets a-begging. It is a circumstance not to be forgotten, 
that she was very young (under nineteen) and remarkably hand- 
some. She went to a linen draper's shop, took some coarse 
linen off the counter and slipped it under her cloak; the shop- 
man saw her and she laid it down. For this she was hanged. 
Her defence was, that she had lived in credit, and wanted for 
nothing until a press-gang came and stole her husband from 
her ; but since then, she had no bed to lie on ; nothing to give 
her children to eat, and they were almost naked ; and perhaps 
she might have done something wrong, for she hardly knew 
what she did. The parish officers testified the truth of this 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 501 



story ; but it seems there had been a good deal of shop-liftin"- 
about Ludgate; an example was thought necessary, and this 
woman was hanged for the comfort and satisfaction of shop- 
keepers in Ludgate street. When brought to receive sentence, 
she behaved in such a frantic manner, as proved her mind to 
be in a distracted and desponding state, and the child was 
sucking at her breast when she set out for Tyburn. 

Let us reflect a little on this woman's fate. For what cause 
w T as God's creation robbed of this, its noblest work ? It was 
for no injury, but for a mere attempt to clothe her two naked 
children, by unlawful means. Compare this with what the 
State did, and with what the law did. The State bereaved the 
woman of her husband, and the children of a father who was 
all their support. The law deprived the woman of her life, and 
the children of their remaining parent, exposing them to every 
danger, insult and merciless treatment, that destitute and help- 
less orphans suffer. Take all the circumstances together, I do 
not believe a fouler murder was ever committed against law, 
than the murder of this woman by law. Some, perhaps, are 
blaming the judges, the jury, and the hangman, bat neither 
judge, jury, or hangman are to blame ; they are but ministerial 
agents; the true hangman is your member of Parliament; he 
who frames the bloody law, is answerable for all the blood that 
is shed under it.* 

We have given these two instances as fair samples of that 
careless and ambiguous legislation which often leads to results 
which humanity and justice must long deplore. Such legisla- 
tion often wars against the first principles of our nature, and 
demands an obedience, under the penalty of death, which it 
were worse than the most cruel death to render. Take the law 
of accessories after the fact as an illustration. If the father 
commit treason, the son must abandon or deliver him up to the 
executioner. If the son be guilty of a crime, the stern dic- 
tates of our law require that his parent — the very mother who 
bore him — his sisters and brothers, the companions of his infan- 
cy, should expel nature from their hearts, and humanity from 
their feelings — that they should barbarously discover his re- 



l *Sir William Meredith's speech inParliament on frequent executions. 
39 



592 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

treat, or with inhuman apathy abandon him to his fate. The 
husband is even required to betray his wife, the mother of his 
children ; every tie of nature or affection is to be broken, and 
men are required to be faithless, treacherous, unnatural and 
cruel, in order to prove that they are good citizens and worthy 
members of society !* Now a Legislature that could have first 
required such things from its subjects, should hardly be consid- 
ered a safe depository of the lives of its people. And when 
we reflect how many Parliaments in England, and how many 
Legislatures in America, have met and adjourned without an 
attempt to eradicate such unnatural principles from the law, 
conviction becomes riveted on the mind, that human legisla- 
tion is so incautious and negligent that it should never extend 
to the extinction of human life. 



CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS NOT THE MOST EFFECTUAL IN DETERRING 
OTHERS FROM THE COMMISSION OF CRIME. 

Criminal jurisprudence, for several ages at least, has been 
very far in the rear of public opinion. The use of torture, the 
trial by battle, the drowning of witches, and burning of heretics, 
was never abolished in England until long after public senti- 
ment had denounced such cruel spectacles. The Inquisition 
struggled hard, and down to our times, succeeded in maintain- 
ing its fires and its faggots, in despite of the maledictions of 
nearly the whole civilized world. The older States of the Union 
could, no doubt, furnish many examples illustrating the justice 
of the remark. 

If, however, criminal legislation does not adapt itself imme- 
diately to the general state of public sentiment, the consequence 
is that the various officers of the law become less vigilant in 
the detection of offenders, and the ministers of justice resort to 
every subtelty and refinement to screen them from a punish- 
ment disproportioned to their crimes. This may not be true of 
all the officers and ministers of the law, especially of judges, 
who for many years before their advancement to the bench, 
may have been Attorney Generals, or prosecuting counsel for 
the State ; but experience and observation have every where 

* Livingston's Report. 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 593 

shown its correctness as to jurors, who are taken from the gen- 
eral mass of mankind, and who feel more strongly the prevail- 
ing current of humanity and mercy. 

This is believed to be the true reason, why so many offend- 
ers, whose punishment, on conviction, would be death, so often 
escape. It is not the money of the accused that bribes, nor 
the number and power of his friends that overawe, nor the 
skill and eloquence of his counsel that seduce public justice 
from her straight and onward course. No ; it is none of these 
things. It is the gentle voice of humanity, whispering in the 
ears of the jurors, "this man's life is not lawfully in your pow- 
er; take it not away lest Heaven should demand it at your 
hands." 

These appeals to the softer and better parts of our nature 
often operate as a virtual repeal of those bloody statutes 
whose places are retained in the criminal code long after pub- 
lic opinion will not allow them to be enforced. Because the 
law-making power will not expressly substitute a milder pun- 
ishment, such repeals result in the entire acquittal of many 
offenders, who, though they deserve not to die, ought neverthe- 
less to be compelled to make severe atonement for their crimes. 
Many are thrown back to commit new ravages on society, who 
should have been forever shut out from its enjoyments, and 
compelled to hard labor, for their own, or their family's, or 
their country's support. But, by insisting on the security of 
the grave, society often loses even the protection of the 
prison. 

Suppose, however, capital convictions, effected without cor- 
ruption in the witnesses, without mistakes in the jury, and 
without errors committed by the court; what effects do they 
produce, which do not equally result from perpetual slavery? 
A punishment, to be just, should have that degree of severity 
only, which is sufficient to deter others. Now, there is no man 
who would, on the least reflection, put in competition the total 
and perpetual loss of liberty, with the greatest advantage he 
could possibly obtain in consequence of a crime. Perpetual 
slavery, then, has in it all that is necessary to deter the most 
hardened and determined, as much as the punishment of death. 
I say it has more. There are many who can look upon death 



594 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

with intrepidity and firmness ; some, through fanaticism, others 
through vanity that attends us even to the grave ; others, from 
a desperate resolution, either to get rid of their misery or to 
cease to live ; but fanaticism and vanity forsake the criminal in 
slavery, in chains and fetters, in an iron cage, and despair 
seems rather the beginning than the end of their misery. The 
mind, by collecting itself and uniting all its force, can, for a 
moment, repel assailing grief; but its most vigorous efforts are 
insufficient to resist perpetual wretchedness.* 

If we look to the executions themselves, what examples do 
they give ? The offender dies either hardened or penitent. 
We are not to consider what reflections occur to reasonable or 
good men, but such impressions as are made on the thought- 
less, the desperate and the wicked. These men look on the 
hardened villain with envy and admiration. All that anima- 
tion and contempt of death, with which heroes and martyrs 
inspire good men, the abandoned villain feels, in seeing a des- 
perado like himself, meet death with intrepidity. The penitent 
criminal, on the other hand, often makes the sober villain think 
in this way : himself oppressed with poverty and want, he 
sees a man die with that penitence, which promises pardon for 
his sins here, and happiness hereafter ; straight, he thinks, that 
by robbery, forgery and murder, he can relieve all his wants, 
and if he be brought so to justice, the punishment will be short 
and trifling, and the reward eternal. When once a villain 
turns enthusiast, he is above all law; punishment is his reward, 
and death his glory. f 

If the hanging of a fellow being produce no good effect on 
the profligate and abandoned, what impression does it make on 
the minds of the virtuous and orderly part of the community? 
From some motive, which it is perhaps impossible to specify or 
define, great crowds will always assemble to witness the terri- 
ble and solemn spectacle. At the appointed hour, the con- 
demned victim, seated on his coffin, and surrounded by the 
swords and spears of the guard, is seen approaching on the 
slow-moving car of death : he is carried forward in this condi- 



*Sir William Meredith's Speech in Parliament. 1777 4 
■j-Beccaria. 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 595 

tion, through the immense assembly, until he reaches the scaf- 
fold. Here, standing on that narrow isthmus, which separates 
time from eternity, he makes his last and solemn appeal to the 
world ! He either denies his guilt altogether, or extenuates 
his crime by referring it to misfortune, or to the vicious exam- 
ple and education of his youth. He next implores the world to 
do justice to his memory — pronounces the forgiveness of his 
enemies — drops on his knees in prayer, and calls on all the 
holy ministers of God to lift up their last supplication to Heav- 
en in his behalf ! Oh, at that awful moment, who would not 
wish, nay, who would not rejoice to see the sword of destruc- 
tion turned aside, and the angel of mercy overshadowing the 
trembling and supplicating victim ! But, no. He must die — 
the last act of devotion must be interrupted — the rude grasp 
of the hangman tells "his hour has come." His supplicating 
look implores but a few moments more to fit him for the dread- 
ful change ; but it is in vain. He bows his head to the halter, 
and, soon hangs a lifeless corpse in the midst of a sympa- 
thising and sobbing multitude ! Let me here ask again, how 
so sad and mournful a spectacle as this can ever magnify the 
law or make it honorable ? Who, in fact, then thinks of the 
law but to execrate it, or deplore its hard and barbarous re- 
quirments. 

If the asseverations of his innocence should obtain credence 
with the public, or if it should subsequently appear that false 
testimony, the passions of the moment, or deceiving appear- 
ances had effected his conviction, what, then, would not the 
judge who tried, the jury who rendered the verdict, and the 
whole community, who saw or heard his tragical end, what 
would they not all give to have it in their power to restore him 
to life ? Instances like these are of frequent occurrence. The 
most authentic English records are full of them ; many have 
occurred in the United States, in which the innocence of the 
sufferers has been clearly demonstrated. A few of such cases 
do infinitely more harm to the generation in which they occur, 
than the example of the other capital executions can compen- 
sate. They are remembered when all the instances of com- 
mon cases are forgotten. They go down the stream of tradi- 
tion. The old, in whose day they occurred, relate them to 



596 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

their children and grand children, until all the feelings of na- 
ture are arrayed against the laws of the country and those 
who administered them. 

Society, by punishing the higher offences only with death, 
has retained it in many of those very cases to which it is the 
least appropriate, and, therefore, the least efficacious in prevent- 
ing them. The traitor is prompted by ambition to overturn 
the liberties of his country. Will the fear of death drive the 
big passion back into his bosom, or arrest his progress in the 
moment of expected triumph ? If so, why did an Arnold go 
over to the enemy, or a Burr seek to dismember our Union? 
Could the one have been commander in chief of our armies, 
and the other the President of the republic — they would not 
now " be damned to everlasting fame" as the only recreants, in 
half a century, to the cause of liberty in the new world. 
Such men cannot submit to the restraints of society. Compel 
them to undergo the confinements of a prison ; from the expec- 
tation of filling the high places of the earth, with Princes and 
nobles in attendance, bring them down to the humble vassals 
of the turnkey that nightly locks them within their solitary 
cells. Perpetual degradation like this, would do more toward 
suppressing their high and vaulting spirits, than the fear of 
death, " which men always behold in distant obscurity." 

How can the fear of death be efficacious in preventing mur- 
der by duelling ? Has not the culprit braved death even in 
the very act of committing his offence ? Why then expect 
him to dread it at the end of a rope, who feared it not at the 
mouth of the pistol ! Such modern barbarians risk their lives, 
" that they may keep their places in society." Counteract their 
vain expectations, by compelling them to take their places out 
of society — force them to exchange their pistols for the sledge 
hammer, and their small swords for the pegging awl, and you 
will have done more towards preserving the lives of our Deca- 
turs and Hamiltons, than all the gibbets ever erected in Ameri- 
ca. There is another crime which the sentiments of mankind 
more universally require should be capitally punished than 
any other; but even this is prompted by brutal passions which 
are proverbially regardless of consequences, and whose repe- 
tition can be guarded against by amputation, as effectually as 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 597 

by calling in the aid of that universal specific, death. The 
surgeon, and not the executioner, is all that society needs in 
this case ; but a decent respect to the feelings of those who 
have been outraged, and a proper regard to the example on 
others, require a perpetual exclusion from the walks of civil- 
ized life — a subjection to the coarse diet, the hard lodging, and 
the incessant labor of imprisonment for life. 



THE SAAIE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

If to reasoning, such as we have resorted to, be added, the 
recorded testimony of competent witnesses, whose situation 
enables them to make correct observations, but little doubt can 
remain as to the inefficacy of capital punishment. In England 
a great portion of the eloquence and learning, and all the hu- 
manity of the age, are at work in an endeavor to restrict the 
punishment of death to the more atrocious offences. This 
has produced a parliamentary enquiry, in the course of which 
the examination of witnesses was taken before a committee 
of the House of Commons. We make the following extract 
from the testimony of a solicitor who had practiced for more 
than twenty years in the criminal courts : " In the course of 
my practice, I have found that the punishment of death has no 
terror on a common thief — indeed, it is much more the sub- 
ject of ridicule among them than of serious deliberation. The 
certain approach of an ignominious death does not seem to 
operate upon them ; for after the warrant has come down, 
I have seen them treat it with levity. I once saw a man for 
whom I had been concerned the day before his execution, and, 
on offering him condolence, and expressing my concern at his sit- 
uation, he replied with an air of indifference, ' players at bowls 
must expect rubbers ;' — and this man I heard say, ' that it was 
only a few minutes — a kick and a struggle, and all was over.' 
The fate of one set of culprits, in some instances, had no effect, 
even on those who were to be next reported for execution : 
they play at ball, and pass their jokes as if nothing was the 
matter. I have seen the last separation of persons about to 
be executed : there was nothing of solemnity about it, and it 
was more like the parting for a country journey than taking 
their last farewell. I mention these things to show what little 



598 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS . 

fear common thieves entertain of capital punishments ; and 
that, so far from being arrested in their wicked courses, by the 
distant possibility of its infliction, they are not even intimidat- 
ed by its certainty." 

The ordinary of Newgate, a witness better qualified than 
any other to give information on this subject, being asked— 
" have you made any observations as to the effect of the sen- 
tence of death upon the prisoners?" answers: "it seems 
scarcely to have any effect upon them ; the generality of peo- 
ple under sentence of death are thinking, or rather doing any 
thing than preparing for their latter end." Being interrogated 
as to the effects produced on the minds of the people by capi- 
tal executions, he answers : " I think shock and horror at the 
moment, upon the inexperienced and young, but immediately 
after the scene is closed, forgetfulness altogether of it, leaving 
no impression on the young and inexperienced. The old and 
experienced thief says, the chances have gone against the man 
who has suffered, that it is of no consequence, that it was 
what was to be expected; making no serious impression upon 
the mind. I have had occasion to go into the press-yard with- 
in an hour and a half after an execution, and I have found 
them amusing themselves, playing at ball or marbles, and ap- 
pearing precisely as if nothing had happened." 

Another of these respectable witnesses (a magistrate of the 
capital) being asked whether he thought that capital punish- 
ments had much tendency to deter criminals from the commis- 
sion of offences, answered : " I do not ; I believe it is well 
known to those who are conversant with criminal associations 
in this town, that criminals live and act in gangs and confede- 
racies, and that the execution of one or more of their body, sel- 
dom has a tendency to dissolve the confederacy, or to deter the 
remaining associates from the continuance of their former pur- 
suits." 

No coloring is necessary to heighten the effect of these 
sketches. Nothing, it appears to us, can more fully prove the 
utter inutility of this waste of human life, its utter inefficiency 
as a punishment, and its demoralizing operation on the minds 
of the people. 

In London and Middlesex, for sixteen years, ending in 1818, 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 590 

thirty-five persons were convicted of murder, and stabbing with 
intent to murder, which is an average of a fraction more than 
two in the year. In the city of New Orleans seven persons 
suffered for the same crime in the space of four years, which 
is very little less than the same average ; but the population of 
New Orleans, during the period, did not amount to more than 
about thirty-five thousand, which is, to that of Middlesex and 
London, in round numbers, as one to twenty-seven ; therefore, 
the crime of murder was nearly twenty- seven times as frequent 
in proportion to numbers as in London. Almost the same 
proportion exists between the whole State, and England and 
Wales, in relation to this crime; nineteen executions having 
taken place for murder in the last seven years in Louisiana; 
one hundred and fifty-four during the seven years ending in 
1818, in England and Wales. In London and Middlesex, 
eight hundred and eighty-five persons were convicted for forgery 
and counterfeiting, in seven years, ending in 1818. During an 
equal period seven persons were convicted of the same offences 
in the whole State, which makes the crime eighteen times 
more frequent there, in proportion to numbers, than it is here. 
Six thousand nine hundred and seventy-four convictions for 
larceny took place in the same period in London, and for the 
like period in Louisiana, one hundred ; which is near ten to 
one more there than here, in proportion to the population. I 
well know that the state of society in the two countries — the 
degree of temptation — the ease or difficulty of obtaining sub- 
sistence and other circumstances, as well as the operation of 
laws, may produce the difference I have shown; but does it not 
raise serious doubts as to the efficacy of capital punishments. 
to observe this double effect, that almost the only crime which 
we punish in that manner, is more frequent in proportion of 
twenty-seven to one, whilst those which are the object of a 
milder sanction, are almost in the same ratio less than the 
country with which we make the comparison. 

The laws of none of the States punish highway robbery with 
death. Those of the United States aiiix this punishment to 
the robbery of the mail, under the circumstances that gener- 
ally accompany it. Yet it is believed that this last species of 
highway robbery is more frequent than the other — another 



600 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



proof that the fear of death is not a more powerful preventive 
of crime than other punishments.* 

The experience of almost every civilized nation ought to 
settle this question. Great Britain is said to have reduced the 
number of her capital offences from about two hundred to 
something like twenty — and no respectable writer which I have 
met with, has ever pretended that those offences, the punish- 
ment of which had been ameliorated, had become more fre- 
quent or alarming to society. If abolishing the punishment of 
death in about one hundred and seventy or eighty cases out of 
two hundred has not had such an effect, what reason can there 
be for believing it would do so as to the remaining twenty ? 
The experiments made in the United States clearly show, 
that the number may be greatly reduced below twenty, without 
injury to society. Here, the general, if not universal senti- 
ment prevails, that the punishment of death should be confined 
to treason, murder and rape — and in but few of the States is it 
extended beyond these offences on the first conviction. In 
some States, however, arson, counterfeiting money, kidnapping, 
&c, are so punished. We submit it as a general remark, 
that the number of offences punished by death, in the United 
States, averaging all the States of the Union, would not exceed 
one-third of the number punished capitally in England. Why 
then should either nation, after running this race of humanity 
together, stop short of that goal which alone is worth contend- 
ing for — universal abrogation of the punishment of death? 
Why should either stop in this great work of reformation, when 
all the experiments they have made in the smaller offences 
give promise of complete and triumphant success ? The ex- 
ample of other nations, who have made the experiment, invite 
them to its completion. In republican Rome, for the long pe- 
riod of two hundred and fifty years, before her institutions 
were swept away by the imperial power, it was not lawful to 
put a Roman citizen to death. And the historian has never 
asserted that crimes were multiplied by it during that time. 
In Russia, the Empress Elizabeth, for twenty years, abolished 
the punishment, and her successor, Catharine the Second, under 



♦Livingston's Report to the Legislature of Louisiana. 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. G01 

a full persuasion of its being useless, also gave orders to those 
who were about to frame a new code of laws for her empire, 
to abolish it altogether. About the same time (probably a few- 
years after) that Elizabeth made her experiment in the north, 
the Duke of Tuscany renewed it in the south; and after trying 
it for twenty years, no doubt watching its effects with the most 
vigilant eye, he declares, " that atrocious offences had become 
very rare, and the lesser ones greatly diminished." It is said 
that, during those twenty years, only five murders were com- 
mitted within his dominions; whilst in Rome, whose inhabit- 
ants have the same manners, principles and religion with those 
of Tuscany, the number would amount to many hundreds. 
The abolition of death alone as a punishment for murder, pro- 
duced this difference in the moral character of the two na- 
tions.* 



mr. Livingston's refutation of the usual arguments urged 
agalnst abolishing the punishment of death. 
Let us examine those reasons which are usually given on 
the affirmative side of this interesting question : 

First. There are those who support it by argument drawn 
from religion. The divine spirit infused into the great legis- 
lator of the Jews, from whose code these arguments are drawn, 
was never intended to inspire a system of universal jurispru- 
dence. The theocracy given as a form of government to that 
extraordinary people, was not suited to any other; as little was 
the system of their penal laws given on the mysterious moun- 
tain, promulgated from the bosom of a dark cloud, amid thun- 
der and lightning; they were intended to strike terror into the 
minds of a perverse and obdurate people ; and as one means 
of effecting this, the punishment of death is freely denounced 
for along list of crimes; but the same authority establishes 
the lex talionis and other regulations, which those who quote 
this authority would surely not wish to adopt. They forget that 
the same Almighty author of that law, at a later period, in- 
spired one of his prophets with a solemn assurance, and af- 
firmed it with an awful asservation, — " as 1 live saith the Lord, 



*Rush's Essays. 



(302 



MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 



I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he 
should turn from his wickedness and live." They forget, too, 
although they are Christians who use this argument, that the 
divine author of their religion expressly forbids the retaliatory 
system, on which the punishment of death for murder is 
founded; they forget the mild benevolence of his precepts, the 
meekness of his spirit, the philanthropy that breathes in all 
his words and directed all his actions ; they loose sight of that 
golden rule, which he established, "to do nothing to others, 
that we would not desire them to do unto us ;" and certainly 
pervert the spirit of his holy and merciful religion, when they 
give it as a sanction for sanguinary punishments. Indeed, if 
I were inclined to support my opinion by arguments drawn 
from religion, the whole New Testament should be my text, 
and I could easily deduce from it authority for a system of 
reform as opposed to one of extirpation. 

Secondly. The practice of all nations, from the remotest 
antiquity, is urged in favor of this punishment ; the fact, with 
some exceptions, is true; but is the inference just? There are 
general errors, and, unfortunately for mankind, but few gen- 
eral truths, established by practice, in government and legisla- 
tion. Make this the criterion, and despotism is, by many 
thousand degrees, on the scale of antiquity, better than a re- 
presentative government: the laws of Draco were more an- 
cient than those of Solon, and consequently better ; and the 
practice of torture quite as generally diffused, as that of which 
we are now treating. Idolatry in religion, tyranny in govern- 
ment, capital punishments and inhuman tortures in jurispru- 
dence, are coeval and co-extensive. Will the advocates of 
this punishment admit the force of their argument in favor of 
all these abuses ? If they do not, how will they apply it to the 
one for which they argue ? 

The long and general usage of any institution gives us the 
means of examining its practical advantages or defects; but 
it ought to have no authority as a precedent until it be proved 
that the best laws are the most ancient, and that institutions 
for the happiness of the people are the most permanent and 
most generally diffused. But this, unfortunately, cannot be 
maintained with truth; the melancholy reverse forces convic- 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 603 

tion on our minds. Everywhere, with but few exceptions, the 
interest of the many has, from the earliest ages, been sacrificed 
to the power of the few. Everywhere, penal laws have 1>< 
framed to support this power, and those institutions, favorable 
to freedom, which have come down to us from our ancestors, 
form no part of any original plan ; but are isolated privileges, 
which have been wrested from the grasp of tyranny, or which 
have been suffered, from inattention to their importance, to 
grow into strength. 

Every nation in Europe has, during the last eight or ten 
centuries, been involved in a continued state of internal dis- 
cord or foreign war: Kings and nobles continually struggling 
for power, both oppressing the people, and driving them to 
desperation and revolt. Different pretenders asserted their 
claims to the throne of deposed or assassinated Kings ; religious 
wars, cruel persecutions, partition of kingdoms, cessions of 
provinces, succeeding each other with a complication and ra- 
pidity that defies the skill and diligence of the historian to 
unravel and record. Add to this the ignorance in which the 
human mind was involved during the early and middle part of 
this period ; the intolerant bigotry, which, from its close connec- 
tion with government, stifled every improvement in politics, as 
well as every reformation in religion, and we shall see a state 
of things certainly not favorable for the formation of wise 
laws on any subject; but particularly ill calculated for the es- 
tablishmeut of a just or humane criminal code. From such 
legislators, acting in such times, what could be expected but 
that which we actually find — a mass of laws, unjust, because 
made solely with a view to support the temporary \ iewa of a 
prevailing party; unwise, obscure, inhuman, inconsistent, be- 
cause they were the work of ignorance, dictated by interest, 
passion and intolerance. But it would scarcely seem prudent 
to surrender our reason to authorities thus established, and to 
give the force of precedent to any of the incoherent collections 
of absurd, cruel and contradictory provisions, which have been 
dignified with the name of penal codes, in the jurisprudence 
of any nation of Europe, as their laws stood prior to the last 
century. 1M0 one would surely advise this; why then select 
any part of the mass and recommend it to us, merely because 



604 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

it has generally been practiced ? If there is any other reason 
for adopting it, let that be urged, and it ought to have its weight ; 
but my object here is to show, that from the mode in which the 
penal laws of Europe have, until a very late period, been estab- 
lished, very little respect is due to them merely on account 
of their antiquity, or of the extent to which they have pre- 
vailed. If the criminal jurisprudence of the modern and 
middle ages affords us little reason to revere either its human- 
ity or justice, the ancient world does not give us more. The 
despotism of antiquity was like that of modern times, and 
such as it will always be; it can have but one character, which 
the rare occurrence of a few mild or philosophic monarchs 
does not change. 

The third and last argument I have heard urged, is nearly 
allied to the second ; it is, the danger to be apprehended from 
innovation. I confess I always listen to this objection with 
some degree of suspicion. That men who owe their rank, their 
privileges and emoluments, to abuses and impositions originat- 
ing in the darkness of antiquity, and consecrated by time, that 
such men should preach the danger of innovations I can well 
conceive; the wonder is, that they can find others weak and 
credulous enough to believe them. But in a country where 
these abuses do not exist ; a country whose admirable system 
of government is founded wholly on innovation ; where there is 
no antiquity to create a false veneration for abuses, and no 
apparent interest to perpetuate them; in such a country this 
argument will have little force against the strong reasons which 
assail it. Let those, however, that honestly entertain this 
doubt, reflect that most fortunately for themselves and for their 
posterity, they live in an age of advancement : not an art, not 
a science, that has not in our day made rapid progress to- 
ward perfection. The one of which we now speak has received 
and is daily acquiring improvement. How long is it since tor- 
ture was abolished ? Since judges were made independent? 
Since personal liberty was secured, and religious persecution 
forbidden ? All these were, in their time, innovations as bold 
at least as the one now proposed. The true use of this objec- 
tion, and there I confess it has force, is to prevent any hazard- 
ous experiment, or the introduction of any change that is not 



ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. G05 

strongly recommended by reason. I desire no other test for the 
one that is now under discussion, but I respectfully urge, that 
it would be unwise to reject it merely because it is untried, if 
we are convinced it will be beneficial. Should our expecta- 
tions be disappointed, no extensive evil can be done ; the re- 
medy is always in our power. Although an experiment, it is 
not an hazardous one, and the only enquiry seems to be, 
whether the arguments and facts stated in its favor are suffi- 
ciently strong to justify us in making it. Indeed, it appears to 
me, that the reasoning might, with some propriety, be retorted 
against those who use it, by saying, " all punishments are but 
experiments to discover what will best prevent crimes ; your 
favorite one of death has been fully tried. By your own ac- 
count, all nations, since the first institution of society, have 
practiced it, but yourself must acknowledge, with >ut success. 
All we ask then is, that you abandon an experiment which 
has for five or six thousand years been progressing under all 
the variety of forms which cruel ingenuity could invent, and 
which in all ages, under all governments, has been found 
wanting. You have been obliged reluctan ly to confess that 
it is inefficient, and to abandon it in minor offences ; what 
charm has it then, which makes you cling to it in those of a 
graver cast? You have made your experiment; it was at- 
tended in its operation with an incalculable waste of human 
life ; a deplorable degradation of human intellect ; it was found 
often fatal to the innocent, and it very frequently permitted the 
guilty to escape. Nor can you complain of any unsi asonable 
interferference with your plan, that may account for it.; failure ; 
during the centuries that your system has been in operation, 
humanity and justice have never interrupted its conrse ; you 
went on in the work of destruction, always seeing n increase 
of crime, and always supposing that increased se erity was 
the only remedy to -uppress it; the mere forfeiture of life was 
too mild; tortures were superadded, which nothing hut the in- 
telligence f a fiend could invent, to prolong its duration and 
increase its torments; yet there was no diminution of crime, 
and it never occurred to you, that mildness mighl ;.<• nnplish 
that which co ild not be effected by severity." This great 
truth revealed itself to philosophers, who imparted it to the 



60(3 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS. 

people ; the strength of popular opinion at length forced it on 
Kings, and the work of reformation, in spite of the cry against 
its novelty, began. It has been progressive. Why should it 
stop, when every argument, every fact, promises its complete 
success ? We could not concur in the early stages of this re- 
formation ; perhaps the credit may be reserved to us of com- 
pleting it.* 

^Livingston's Report to the Legislature of Louisiana. 



SPEECH 



OF 



EI-G07. AAEON V. BROWI 



AGAINST THE 



ORGANIZATION OF THE KNOW-NOTHINGS. 



AT 



COLUMBIA, AUGUST 23, 1855. 



NASHVILLE: 

G. C. TORBETT A2VD COMPANY 

1855. 



V 






SPEECfl. 



Gentlemen axd Fellow-Citizexs : 

In looking over the late field of battle, there is one 
object that strikes the eye more distinctly than all others. 
It peers on our vision, iike some huge mountain 
top which we cannot lose sight of. It is that lawless vio- 
lence (hat has characterized the election in a neighboring 
State, and the reckless slander and detraction that has dis- 
tinguished it in our own. Look around you at the hon- 
ored objects of Know-Nothing defamation who chance 
now to be present. You, sir, (pointing to Gov. Johnson.) 
after a life the most exemplary, have been denounced 
from one end of the State to the oilier. Another gen- 
tleman present, (Mr. Nicholson,) unexceptionable and 
amiable, as every one here knows him to be, has been 
pronounced a knave who wished to rob the public treasury. 
Yonder is another, (Mr. Payne,) who was actually ac- 
cused of being a hired emissary of the Pope ! I am not 
sure that they did not make him a Bishop or a Cardinal ! 
As to myself, the public will doubtless have noticed the 
fact that during the last four weeks of that int. :on- 

flict which has just ended, I have been an object of Un- 
measured abuse by many of the Know-Nothing jour- 
nals of the State. Some of them, I believe, have, not 
joined in this vituperation. They have had intelligence 
enough to know how to conduct a discussion of public 
affairs, and honor enough not to des • ' .ito the naust 



(4) 

depths of vulgar abuse, where they knew no true gentle- 
man could condescend to follow them. Some of these 
attacks I have never seen. Their faint and feeble echoes 
have scarcely reached me ; but, as far as I have seen or 
heard of them, they have only excited my ineffable scorn 
and contempt. I have lived to but little purpose, if it 
can now be necessary, whilst engaged in the discussion of 
any great subject, to pause in it to notice every puppy 
that shall fly out and bark at mv heels. 

I did not enter into the discussions of this canvass 
without expecting there would be many blockheads who 
could not understand my arguments, and many knaves 
who would misrepresent them ; but, at the same time. I 
expected that there would be found a sound and healthy 
body of my fellow citizens, both in and out of this new 
order, who icould understand and appreciate any fair and 
courteous address which I might deliver before them. 
In this last expectation, I am proud to know that I have 
not been at all disappointed. Hundreds of the now 
order have declared that they listened to me with satis- 
faction; because, as they stated, I did not deal in hi 
expressions or abusive language in relation to them. 

As these attacks have been continued upon me aft r 
the election, I have no alternative left but to continue my 
defence against them. They do not annoy me, as my 
assailants vainly expect them to do, but they furnish me 
with opportunities, which I desire to have, to exhibit to 
my countrymen some new and horrid features of Know- 
Nothingism, more revolting than any which they have 
ever yet contemplated — so revolting that, when seen, 
they must and will overwhelm the present organization of 
this party with universal execration. 

These attacks on me, and on all others who have at- 



glSID, 



(5) 

tempted to expose the deformities of Know-Nothin 
whether in or out of the State, are the direct conse- 
quences of the wicked and unlawful form and mode of 
their organization. Mutually bound to stand by each 
other, as I shall presently show they are sworn to do, 
they feel secure and exempt from punishment, either at 
the hand of the individual aggrieved, or even at the hand 
of the public laws of the land, I speak not of the good 
men who may have joined the order, and who have not 
yet withdrawn from it; — to such men the law of 
truth, of justice and honor, will always be "the higher 
law" governing and controlling their actions; — but I 
speak of the profligate and unprincipled ones, who lead 
on in these attacks, either to save bets which they or 
their friends may have made on the election, or to gratify 
a boundless lust for the offices of the country, with their 
high salaries. What is there to restrain such men as 
these but the fear of punishment, private and public ? 
And yet these restraints, which all other men feel, and 
which exert the most salutary influences on any society 
are removed and unfelt under this Know-Nothing or<*an- 
ization. What, now-a-days, do such men fear or care for 
what they may say, or do,or publish, against any man, even 
the purest and best, when they know that, by dropping a 
few bits of red paper, and giving a shrill cry of a peculiar 
intonation, they can call around them a host of their 
comrades, all armed for the occasion, to stand by them 
and bear them successfully and safely through the dang 
They know that when called they must come; that they 
are bound by their oaths to come, unless it be physically 
impossible, and to come prepared for the emergency. 
What chance has any one man, or indeed almost any 
number of ■men, unless acting under a similar organiza* 



(6) 

lion, to assert his opinions or to maintain his rights as a 
citizen, in the midst of a secretly armed body of men, 
bound to collect at a moment's warning, and to stand by 
each other, by the most solemn obligations ? 

That such is the dangerous character of this Know- 
Nothing organization, no one not of the order can possi- 
bly know; but, in the Louisville Democrat of July 21st, 
and in the Southern Banner of Georgia, of August 2d, 
1855, and, indeed, in the Blue Book that I have seen, the 
oaths, and signs, and the cry of the order have been pub- 
lished, without ever having been authoritatively or other- 
wise contradicted, so far as has come to my knowledge. 
I, therefore, refer to these publications for the following 
oath: 

"You do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty 
God and these witnesses, (after several other things,) that 
you will respond to the claim of a sign or the cry of the 
order, unless it be physically impossible. " 

Such is the oath. What now is the sign ? The same 
authority informs us, 

"That if the color of the paper he red, it will denote 
actual trouble ; which requires that you come prepared 
to meet it. '' 

How prepared to meet it % How does any body pre- 
pare to meet danger ? With arms, of course. 

Such is the sign $ now what is the cry of the order, or 
uhe cry of distress, as used in different sentences, and 
w\vich I understand as meaning the same thing ? The 
$ame> author i lies say : 

u The cry of distress, to be used only in time of danger, 
or where the American interest requires an immediate 
assemblage of the brethren, is ' Oh S Oh ! Oh ! ' The re- 
sponse is ' Hio S Hio ! 11-i-o ! ' " 



(?) 

Now, if these be the oath, the sign and cry of the order, 
and as I said in my Gallatin speech about the word social— 
I pray God they may not be — then what a complete and 
perfect system of armed organization do we behold, in 
a time of profound peace, and in the midst of the most 
civilized nation in the world! Who has ever seen, or 
read, or heard of any thing to compare with it ? I know 
not whether such an organization has yet been carried 
out in actual practice or not : that is not the question 
The foundation has been laid for it ; and, from the lawk - 
ness of the times, we may well apprehend that it may 
be, at no distant day. When it is, we shall be surrounded 
by it every day and everywhere — in the country as well 
as in the town. If we go to the muster field, to the court 
house, or to the election ground — places where duty and 
the law command us to £0 — lo ! this organization is there, 
with all its signs and tokens and oaths, requiring them to 
come prepared for any expected emergency. Barely to 
state the case, without a single comment, ought to be 
enough — enough to make every good citizen, and espe- 
cially every professor of religion, to come out of it in- 
stantly. I do not say enough to make every such person 
change his opinion as to the exclusion of Catholics from 
office, or the foreigners from voting until they have been 
here twenty years; — these are different points on which 
I am not now speaking ; — but enough, it seems to me, to 
make every law-abiding citizen, every professed follower 
of the meek and lowly Saviour, to determine that such 
secret and armed organization, even to effect what ihey 
might think is a good object, is essentially and radically 
wrong. What Presbyterian, or Methodist, or Baptist 
professor, does not know that it is an eternal law of his 
religion that ;C the end can never justify the means ?' No 



(8) 

man can dare hope to see the face of his God in peace, 
that consents knowingly " to do wrong that even good 
may come of it. " You do know that such an organiza- 
tion as these oaths and signs indicate is wrong — -wrono-, 
and forbidden by the laws of the land and the well-being 
of every civilized community. I repeat, that every pro- 
fessing Christian, of every religious denomination, knows 
this part, at least, of Know-Nothingism is w 7 rong in every 
sense of the word. I, therefore, call upon them, this day, 
to come out of these lodges, and never to return to them ; 
at all events, never to return to them until all secrecy, all 
their bits of red paper, (indicating bloody even by the se- 
lection of color,) all their signs and signals, are utterly abo- 
lished and dispensed with. I cajl upon them to do this, 
and to do it forthwith — by their hopes of Heaven — by 
their obedience to the word o( God — by their allegiance 
to the constitution and laws of their country— to come out 
from any party which has adopted a mode and plan of or- 
ganization so fatal to the peace of society and to the pro- 
gress of true religion. If I could but arrest the attention 
of the religious community to this great point in our 
subject, and prevail on them to abandon Know-Nothing- 
ism, until Know-Nothingism abandons its wicked and 
unlawful organization, 1 would willingly consent to bear 
ail the slanders and abuse which bad men could heap 
upon me ! 

Let me, right here, propound a few questions to him 
"who ministers at the altar'' — whether lie be bishop, 
elder or other dignitary in the church. How dare you 
to attach yourself to an order whose organization (I 
speak not of its creed) commands you, whenever you are 
notified by red bits of paper, to rush to the scenes of strife 
and mingle, it may be, in its carnage ? You are com- 



manded by your Heavenly Master to go forth into the 
world "shod with the preparation of the Gospel ot 
peace ;" but Know-Nothingism commands you to go forth 
with the preparation of the bowie-knife and the revol- 
ver ! He commands you, too, " to take with you the 
helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit which is 
the word of God;" but Know-Nothingism arms you with 
different weapons than these — with the sword of perse- 
cution and death! Away, away with these carnal wea- 
pons ! In His own emphatic language, "he that taketh 
the sword shall perish by the sword," — not individually 
and personally, but your usefulness in the ministry will 
die — your congregation will fall oft' and desert your 
churches ; and thus the cause of religion will be made to 
reel and stagger, for a time, under blows received from 
hands annointed to uphold and sustain it. 

Lei me propound yet another question to all men, 
whether in the church or out of it — When this party, 
being secret and oath-bound, shall be once firmly estab- 
lished, must not, and will not, all other parties follow the 
fatal example ? When that is done, what will our coun- 
try become, but one vast camp of secretly armed people, 
ready to rush to combat on the dropping of a red piece 
of paper, or the shrill outcry of a preconcerted signal? 
Then, indeed, that song, which now only serves to adorn 
the legends of a lawless age in its bloody variations, may 
become our national anthem, sung by conflicting bands 
as they rush into battle: 

"The moon's on the lake, and the mist's on the brae, 
And our clan has a name that is nameless by day ; 
Our signal for fight, which from monarchs we drew, 
Must be heard but by night in its vengeful halloo ! 
— Whilst there's leaves on the forest, or foam on the river, 
McGregor, despite them, shall flourish for ever ! " 



(10) 

It is the province of the statesman to cast his vision 
beyond the present and to discover the far distant conse- 
quences of every departure from the sound principles of 
human action. Let, therefore, no man charge me with 
saying that it is note the design of the Know-Nothings 
to change this nation of Christians into one of mere ban- 
dits, struggling for power. No : I speak of the evil ex- 
ample set to all other parties, and the almost inevitable 
consequences of that example being followed, which must 
solve in blood the great and last problem of human liberty. 
Just so I was doing, or trying to do, in my speech at Leba- 
non. I commented there on the vast and comprehensive 
power of that one of their oaths which, according to the 
publications of it, requires conformity to the will of a ma- 
jority in all matters, political and social. After speaking 
on the political part of the oath, 1 paused and remarked 
that the terms of the oath seemed to go for beyond obe- 
dience in political matters; that it extended, as published, 
to all matters, social as well as political. 1 enquired of 
any Know-Nothing present if his attention was called to 
that word when the oath was administered. No answer 
was given. I then asked if any present, not of the order, 
in reading the published oaths, had noticed that word 
social. Several answered that they had not. Then I 
contended that this was a new feature in Know-Nothing- 
ism, which no one had yet noticed, but one of vast and 
horrid import; that the term social relations was com- 
prehensive enough to embrace nearly every concern of 
human life; that under it the professional man, the mer- 
chant, and the mechanic, might be struck down, &c. &,c, 
almost in the words of my Gallatin speech, and as sub- 
sequently used in my Dickson county letter. But the 
editor of the Herald chosQ to represent me as saying 



(11) 

that such was already the present practices of the Know- 
Nothings of Wilson county; and somo seven or eight citi- 
zens of that county have certified that the statements of 
the Herald are true, to the best of their recollection. 
What statements? That I charged that this thing of 
meeting and breaking down the lawyer, the merchant, 
and the mechanic, teas now being done, and that the next 
step might he to defame the reputation of innocent 
females ! Now, these gentlemen must, on reflection, dis- 
cover the utter impossibility of my speaking of these 
things being done at present by the Know-Nothings of 
Wilson; because I was arguing expressly on the idea I 
they had never yet noticed the words ''social matters," 
which I was then bringing to their minds for the jirst 
time. It was only under this new clause of the oath 
tjjat such things could be done ; and it would be a self- 
evident absurdity to suppose that they had done, or were 
then doing, things which they never heard before that 
they were authorized to do. No: these gentlemen did 
not hear me aright — they did not catch the true tenor and 
course of my remarks. I spoke only of what might be 
done under the broad and comprehensive words of that 
oath, and, therefore, contended they ought to withdraw 
from the order before the bad men who devised this oath, 
and who understood every word in it, should dem 
the fulfillment of it. I do not know these gentlemen — 
their powers of discrimination, their qualifications to re- 
port correctly the speech of a public debater, (which, 
every one knows, is very difficult to do) ; I will not say, 
therefore, any thing unkind in relation to them. They 
say that they understood me as speaking in the present; 
whilst I have the statements of such men as Col. Geo. El- 
liott, G W. Winchester, John K. Howard, Win. W. Mas- 



(12) 

terson, and others, now in my possession, showing clearly 
that they understood me distinctly as only portraying the 
future abuses that might grow up under the promptings of 
the bad men who devised the oath on which I was com- 
menting. As to the vulgar jyersonalities in which the 
editor of the Herald and the Gazette, and several others, 
have indulged — they must excuse me from conferring so 
much importance on them as to condescend to notice 
them : they will find, in after years, that, in a moment of 
foolish passion, they have wantonly outraged all the 
proprieties of social life, and forfeited the esteem and 
confidence of every honorable man. Such a man can- 
not and will not fail to shun and avoid them, 

" As one who sees a serpent in his way, 
Glistening and basking in the summer's ray, 
Disorder'J, stops to shun the reptile near, 
Then walks with loathing on, but knows no fear. " 

Here I would close this address, if my object had 
been a mere vindication of myself against detraction. 
That has been only incidental and subordinate in my pur- 
poses in making this address. I go back, there- 
fore, to the further consideration of the odious, unlawful 
and unchristian organization of Know-Nothingism. At 
this moment there are hundreds and thousands in this new 
order, who decidedly disapprove and condemn it — hun- 
dreds and thousands who admit and feel every day that 
they are sorry that all their secrecy and signs and oaths 
were ever adopted, and that they finally look to the time 
when some Grand Council of the State or Nation will 
drop them altogether. Vain hope ! Delusive expecta- 
tion ! The mandate has already been issued by its official 
organ, ''Let the American party in Tennessee close 
round its standard. Let them collect its members. Let 
it keep its councils in complete organization.''' Why it 



(13) 

is this very organization that has ruined your can 

.at made the thousands of* old lino Whigs abandon 
you in the late election ? They were W] .. t of 

yourselves, and many of them did not much differ from 
you on the naturalization and Catholic questions. But 
they abhorred your secret and midnight organization ; tl 
felt like it was both unlawful and unchristian to receive 
or administer such horrid oaths, without any legal author- 
ity, or any greater necessity for them. They could not 
understand why every body in the order was better qual- 
ified to hold office than any body out of it — why it was 
that Id be manacled with an obligation which 

might compel them to vote for a Benedict Arnold in the 
order, in preference to George Washington oat of the 
order. These, and similar objections, drove thousands of 
old line Whigs (to their eternal honor be it spoken,) 
away from your ranks ; and hundreds and thousands more 
will yet a >n you, unless you abandon your secret 

oaths : igns, and, indeed, all that distinguishes your 

org ion from that of other political parti . You 

must do this. In less than six months from the mo- 
ment I uiiGv these words, one universal sentiment, in 
your order, and out of your order, among patriots, and 
sages, and Christians, will demand that you i 
and do away with all that is p sculiar in your organ - 
lion. You will be compelled to yield to thi ttiment. 
If you do not, the fountains oi the great social deep will 
be broken up. Your family relations will be destroyed ; 
fathers and sons separated by secret obligations unknown 
to each other, will become estrang 1. Your churches 
will be severed in twain — one-half of their congregations 
refusing to sit under the ministration ^>\' <>iv' w oath, 

holds a secret brotherhood to the men of the world par- 



(14) 

amount to the one which he feels to his brethren in the 
church. Your schools will he stripped of half their pa- 
tronage, and the whole moral, religious and intellectual 
progress of the age thrown back for more than half a 
century ! 

I do not desire to draw any over-wrought picture of 
evil from the organization of Know-Nothingism. I 
am not speaking for partisan effect. Perhaps no man 
living is less interested in mere partizan triumphs. But I 
am speaking under a solemn conviction, that there ought 
never to be fought another battle for Know-Nothingism 
in any of the Southern States. In this very mandate is- 
sued from the mountains in Georgia, the followers of 
Know-Nothingism are told why they must close around 
their standards — why they must collect their members — 
why they must keep their councils in complete organiza- 
tion. 4i Let it make ready for the fight of 1856, and all 
will bo well !" Aye ; there it is ! The fight of 1858— 
the Presidential fight — the loaves and the fishes — the 
offices and the salaries ! Give all these to none but to 
the members of our society, and all will be well ! Truly 
might the great Louisiana Whig Senator, Mr. Benjamin, 
refuse to join a body " held together — not by ties of a 
common belief in certain principles and measures ef pub- 
lic policy, but — simply by their preference of themselves 
as the rigid class of men for office holders." 

And is it for this, that another great Know-Nothing 
battle is to be Fought in this country ? fs it for this that 
the deep foundatians of social and religious order are to 
be endangered, only that the next President shall be a 
member of the Know-Nothing society ? How is this 
great and heaven-favored country at all interested in that? 
The President cannot have any thing to do with the na- 



(15) 

turalization question, so far as the voting of foreigner 
concerned: he cannot mention ii in his i . and it' 

he did, Congress cannot say a word about if. Vint 
shall vote, is exclusively with the States to determine. 
What mighty good, then, is to come to the c< u it rv by 
a Know-Nothing President ? None, none whatever, to 
the country; but, of course, a good deal to Know-Noth- 
ingism ! 

I conclude this address — already too long, if I could have 
made it shorter in justice to the subject — by giving the 
r asoii why I have said, so emphatically, that there 
never to be finish t another battle for Know-Nothinsism 
in the .Southern States. No : the Catoosa mandate should 
never have been issued. He should have said — We fou 
the last battle as hard as we could; but the • e of 
Tennessee decided against us. We are not content; yet, 
in the language of the great Henry, "we bow to the 
majesty of the people." lie might have said, and 
to have said — A greater battle than that of Kn >w-N< 
ingism has to be fought — not in 1856, but its openi 
thunders will break upon us in 1855; — a battle involvi 
twelve hundred millions of Souther-. Iving 

the equality in rights of fifteen States of th at Re- 

public; — a battle upon the issue of which may depend 
the constitution and union of our country ! The al 
vow (for abolition swears like Know-Nothii 
been uttered, that the South shall have n<> peace 
than the next winter. Thirteen Slates told the Southern 
Know-Nothings so in the Philadelphia Convention; they 
told them so in their Slate councils, before ihey i 
and told them so after they gol there. Senator Benja- 
min bears a testimony on this point, that oughl to rouse 
every Southern heart, and nerve ev< ry Southern arm. 



(16) 

the coming conflict: "Prominent members of the last 
House — 1 jaders of that factious minority whi< h s^rgl t, by 
abuse of parliamentary rules, to defeat the ascertained 
will of a majority — were heard to threaten that they 
would return to the next Congress, prepared to repeal the 
Nebraska law, and the fugitive slave law, or break up the 
Government in the attempt Most of these men have 
been re-elected, after pledging themselves to the people 
of their districts, to carry out these treasonable designs, 
by means of amendments to be offered to the appropri- 
ation bills at the next session oi Congress. Thus, the 
very existence of this government will be put at issue with- 
in the next twelve months !" In the next twelve months ! 
And shall nothing be done to try and save such a govern- 
ment as God, not Washington, has given us ? £hall 
there be no Ci closing around our standards " for that ? 
No collection of our members, and no completing our 
organizations for that ? Oh, no ! When Democracy 
would fain stand, like a sentinel on the watch-tower, and 
stretch its keenest vision to see the danger, and guard 
against its approach, Know-Nothingism is sounding its 
trumpets for another charge — not to save the South from 
impending ruin, nor even the government itself from de- 
struction, but — only to feast and fatten itself on offices and 
high salaries. Oh! it cannot be, that men have grown 
so mad as this ! It cannot be, that God, who conducted 
our fathers through so many trials and dangers, and in- 
spired them to build up so great and excellent a system f 
government, will now permit their degenerate sons, 
soon, to destroy it ! 



SPEECH 



OF 



EX- GOV. AARON V. BROWN, 



ON 



Jittflttt l0tl)ini}isnt 



At Gallatin, July 4th, 1855, 



NASHVILLE: 

J. P. MORGAN, FINE JOB AND BOOK PRINTER, N". 58, COLLEGE STB 



1*5 5. 



SPEECH. 



Gov. Brown said : 

That lie presented himself before them, upon the kind in- 
vitation of the Committee, to unite with them in the ceremonies of 
the day, aud to commune with them freely on that new subject, which 
now constituted the leading topic of the day. I have embraced the 
opportunity the more readily, because, in many portions of the Stale, 
persons who are believed to belong to the Know Nothing party, hare 
endeavored to make the impression, that I was connected with the 
Order, or, at least, sympathized with them in their purposes or ob- 
jects. 

What need had I, fellow-citizens, to enter into secret intrigues and 
midnight cabals, for the formation of a new political party? I had 
been united, inclose and intimate connection, with the Democratic 
party, from the period when the name of Gen. Jackson was first con- 
nected with the Presidency. T was in the Legislature of 1822, when 
he was first nominated, and concurred in it. I was there, and intro- 
duced the Resolutions of 1S2T, re-nominating him for that high office, 
after he had been beaten by John Qdincy Adams. I fought under 
the banner of that party through both terms of the Jackson admin- 
istration, through that of Mr. Tax Buren, of Jakes K. Polk, and, 
so far, through that of Franklin Pierce. Thus identified with the 
Democratic party for more than a quarter of a century, and baring 
devoted to it the prime of my life, expending as much of my labor 
and means as perhaps any other man now on the stage of action, in 
sustaining it against all attacks, I may again repeat the question, 
what need had I todesire the formation of a new party '' Not surely 
from any dissatisfaction with its principles and doctrines, for 1 had 
assisted in the formation, and had the honor to report, the very plat- 
form on which President PIERCE was nominated, on which he was 
elected, and on which, notwithstanding some complaints as to the 
mere distribution of the patronage of his office, he is nobly and pat- 
riotically administering the great and important concern- of the Na- 
tion. A Platform, so sound, conservative, and national, that the 



T 



( * ) 

late Philadelphia Know Nothing Convention was compelled to pay to 
it the reluctant homage of quoting some of its precise expressions, 
and to shrink from tendering any issue to the Democratic party, either 
on the principles of their platform on the greatest subject of the day, 
or on the Kansas and Nebraska bill, or, indeed, on any other legisla- 
tion under it. So far from tendering any such issue, they expressly 
declare, " that it was the best guarantee of common justice and of 
future peace, to 'abide by'" (the very words used in the Democratic 
Platform at Baltimore, aud in Tennessee,) " and maintain the existing 
laws on the subject of Slavery," (passed mainly by the Democratic 
party in Congress, after many hard struggles,) "as a final and conclu- 
sive settlement of that subject, in spirit and in substance. " What a 
high and unbounded compliment to the Democratic party ! — To that 
party which Jefferson founded, which Jackson settled and matured— 
which Polk illustrated by a long series of brilliant achievements, and 
which Franklin Pierce and his Cabinet are zealouslv and faithfullv 
endeavoring to perpetuate. 

Now, there are two or three things in connection with this self- 
stultifying, midnight movement, that have challenged my especial sur- 
prise. The first one is, that any Democrat, (not a disappointed office- 
seeker,) should have thought of deserting his party at the moment of 
its highest triumphs — at a moment when it had survived, not to say 
subdued, all other parties — at a moment when it had carried, and was 
still carrying, the country to such a pitch of prosperity, as to make 
it truly the wonder of the whole world ! Why, it looks to me like a 
soldier deserting his army, after ad the battles have been fought, and 
all its victories have been won ! Deserting, not in the dark and 
bloody hour of conflict, but when the loud notes of the anthem, " Tc 
Deum Laudamus, " proclaim all danger to be passed, and that noth- 
ing remains but to crown the victors with unfading laurels ! And 
yet there is another spectacle still stranger than this ! It is that any 
Democrat, (not a disappointed office-seeker, as aforesaid, for of him I 
take no account, but as of a mercenary Sioiss fighting only, for his pay,) 
that any Democrat, we repeat, after reading over the proceedings of 
the Philadelphia Know Nothing Convention — ascertaining the num- 
ber present — from what States they came — how many dodged voting 
at all — how many openly seceded and rebelled against the Platform — 
how many of those who, by their absence, permitted the Platform to 
pass only to hoodwink the Southern men, or who even having voted for 
it, have since returned home and given the Platform such a construction 



(*) 

as to admit the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, the Kansas and 
Nebraska Law, ami the rejection of all new States which shall tole- 
rate slavery. Any Democrat, who will look into all these facts, ami 
who will then turn and read over the broad and plain admission, that 
if the Know Nothings should come into power, they would feel 
bound to establish the same principles, and to maintain the very same 
laws that the Democratic party have enacted on the great ami ab- 
sorbing questions of the day, and then not instantly withdraw from 
this midnight faction, and return to his own better and timedionored 
party, I hold to be fatally and irretrievably lost. 

But there is yet a third spectacle that challenges our especial 
wonder — the readiness with which the members of the Whig party 
have either actually entered into this scheme, or stood silently and 
approvingly by, without one word of open rebuke or opposition. 

" Pleased to the last, they crop the flow'ry food, 
And lick the hand just raised to shed their blood ! *' 

They saw two of the Know Nothing papers disputing whether a man 
might not remain a Whig, and yet also become a Know Nothing. 
No, said he, who fiually became, par excellence, the official organ : 
No man can serve two masters. He must be either the one or the 
other. He cannot be both. That Know Nothingism was making its 
grand advent into the world, to strike down and supersede every other 
party. That it was emerging from out of the chaos and corruptions 
of both of the old political parties. The corruptions of botli the old 
political parties ! It was no Democrat, turned to be a Know Noth- 
ing, who made the foul, insulting charge. It was a Whig, metamor- 
phosed into a Know Nothing, who, as he retreated, threw back this 
Parthian arrow into the camp of his former comrades ; and yet, to 
this "-cod day, not one Whig is known of, who ever stepped forward 
to rebuke or repel the charge ! The same idea, emboldened by im- 
punity, is to be found in nearly every organ and Know Nothing speech 
of the day, until it may be safely assumed, as the general sentiment 
and argument of that party, that the corruptions of the old parties 
have created a " political necessity," that they should go down in 
their rottenness, and that the Know Nothing parly should rise pure 
and resplendent on their ruins ! Had this charge hern made by one 
of my own party, whose position might raise a presumption that he 
might know something to justify his accusation, I would not have per- 
mitted a single day to pass over my head, without the sternest re- 
buke and the most explicit denial. Coming, however, as it do 



( o ) 

from a former Whig Editor, who does not know, and never did know, 
one fact to sustain his charge against the Democratic party, I do not 
choose to let the occasion pass, without entering my distinct and em- 
phatic protest against the charge. For the age in which I have 
lived — for that vigorous but virtuous Western population with which 
I have associated — for that noble and honorable party with which I 
have acted — I protest that there is not one word of truth in the accu- 
sation. For thirty years I have been familiar with the caucuses, con- 
ventions, resolves, and other proceedings of the Democratic party in 
its National action, and in the State of Tennessee, and I affirm, as a 
man of honor, that I never knew a proposition to be submitted to the 
consideration, or to be sanctioned by the Democratic party, which, if 
now fully published to the world, would not stand the test of a sound 
and healthy morality. I do not pretend to doubt, that many of the 
Whigs could make the same solemn averments aliout the action of 
the Whig party — its caucuses, conventions, and other party consulta- 
tions. I only express my astonishment that they have not yet done 
so. My astonishment that no warm and devoted friend has yet come 
forward to rescue the fame of Hugh Lawson White, Mr. Webster, 
and Mr. Clay, from this bold charge of corruption in the Whig party. 
My astonishment, that living Statesmen, who are yet wearing the 
Senatorial honors bestowed upon them by the Whig party, should 
have demanded no retraxit of the charge of corruption. My aston- 
ishment, that the individual members of the Whig party, whether in 
town or country, aspiring to no party honors, but still jealous of their 
honor and integrity as men, and as Whigs, have not come forward 
and denied this charge of corruption — that they have not said to 
these Know Nothing organs and orators, Go build up your Know 
Nothing party, if you can — go gather your converts in your secret 
hiding places, in your dark cellars, iu your unfrequented garrets, in 
your caves, or the lonely glens of the mountain — administer to them 
your strange and horrid oaths, which no law will authorize and no 
Religion, founded on the word of God, will sanction — go, and do all 
this, if you choose, but you shall put no brand of corruption on me, 
either as a man, or as a Whig, to be brought up from your Know 
Nothing records, to be read against my children in after times. If 
such should be the indignant sentiments of the rank and file of the 
Whig party, what ought to have been, and what ought yet to be, the 
course of the men of note and mark of that party ? Such men have 
not originated this strange movement. Who ever heard of Senator 



( ' ) 

Bell, wending his way through a dark alley, and in some unfre- 
quented garret, giving instructions in cabalistic mummeries, and ad- 
ministering the wicked oaths of Know Nothingisra 7 When have (lie 
Carutherses, the Topps, the Milton Browns, the John Marshalls, 

the Foggs, and a vast number of others, whose names I mighl men- 
tion as I do these, with no intended discourtesy — when have any like 
these, attempted to extinguish the light of reason and truth, in open, 
public discussion, and to substitute in its stead, the dogmas and edicts 
of a secret and irresponsible cabal? And yet I do apprehend thai 
even such Whigs as these, have too often stood silently by and per- 
mitted second and third rate men to take possession of the rank and 
fdc of their party — lead them off and indoctrinate them into new 
creeds, and bind them up by strange oaths; and to crown the work of 
infatuated irresolution, they have permitted themselves, as component 
parts of the great Whig party of the State, to be published in Know 
Nothing journals, and denounced by Know Nothing orators, as cor- 
rupt men, to whom public affairs could no longer be safely entrusted. 
But I must pass away from these collateral and rather introduc- 
tory topics, in order to express my opinions on graver and more im- 
portant objections, to the origin, the purposes, and obvious tenden- 
cies, of this new Order. The recent disclosures ought not to be per- 
mitted to draw our minds away from the original plan and purposes 
of this midnight cabal. We ought perpetually to remember that 
originally, its very existence, its name, its oaths, its times and places 
of meeting, its objects, whether to regulate and control the political, 
the religious and social conditions of life, were all to be kept pro- 
foundly secret. If a public man was to be struck down, if tin' pro- 
fessional man was to lose his practice, if the merchant was to lie 
broken up in his business, if the mechanic and tradesman was to lie 
suddenly deprived of employment and patronage, the arm that struck 
the fatal blow was to be unseen and even unsuspected. No friend- 
ship could spare, no affection could shield, the selected victim. The 
inexorable oath had been taken, "that you will, in all thin--, politi- 
cal and social, so far as this Order is concerned, comply with the will 
of the majority, when expressed in a lawful manner, though it may 
conflict witli your personal preference.'" Under that oath, even the 
son must do all in Ins power against the father, and the brother must 
stretch his highest ability to effect the ruin of his brother. A power 
so vast, so monstrous, so irresponsible, either to the laws of God or 
man, could not fail to awaken the conscious fears ami horrors of some 



(8 ) 

of its deluded and defrauded followers. Disclosure after disclosure, 
and withdrawal after withdrawal, was the consequence, until society 
stood amazed and shuddered at the thought, that here, in the heart 
of the most enlightened and Christian nation in the world, a midnight 
junto had been formed, more secret than that of the Jesuits, and 
more dangerous to our liberties than that English monarchy against 
which our Fathers rebelled. More dangerous, because that Monarch 
conld be held in check by the great principles of Magna Charta, and 
by the British Parliament, ever jealous of every stretch of the Royal 
prerogative. But this Midnight Junto had no controlling check but 
their own sovereign will and pleasure. They boasted, too, that they 
had enrolled a larger army of followers, than ever mustered in the 
British service, and that each one had been solemnly sworn, faithfully 
to execute the decrees of a majority in matters social as well as po- 
litical. Matters social ! Why these embrace nearly every concern 
of human life — the nearest and most precious ties and relations that 
bind mankind together ! Certainly they do, and if there be truth in 
the publication of that oath, which we have never seen contradicted 
or denied, then the conspiracy entered into by this Know Nothing 
Junto, is far more extensive and dangerous than has generally been 
thought, and deserves a deeper and more universal condemnation 
than it has yet received. I repeat, that if this association does now, 
or ever did, contemplate, as the words of that oath do clearly imply, 
the control and regulation of all social as well as political matters, 
that it is an outrage against all law, human and divine — a conspiracy, 
which ought and must, consign to everlasting infamy, all who have 
entered into the Order, with that understanding of it. I pray God 
that it may not be so. I fervently hope that some explanation can be 
given that will save the age and country in which we live, from the 
dishonor of having given birth to such a conspiracy. I know how 
readily it may be said, that this error of secrecy has been corrected by 
the Philadelphia Convention. Corrected only in part, and I appre- 
hend, in only a very small part. They have lifted up a mere corner 
of the veil, and disclosed, here and there, only a i'cw points which had 
already become known to the public, independent of their Philadelphia 
manifestations. Besides this, we are looking to the original designs 
of the new party, not estimating it by the reforms which an indig- 
nant public opinion may have compelled them recently to adopt. The 
culprit who (lees in disguise, deserves but little credit for throwing it 
off at the moment of arrest and exposure. 



( 9) 

But I dismiss any further objections to the secrecy of this Order- 
to its administration of unlawful and improper oaths. I pass, too, any 
farther comments on that horrid and infernal feature in their oath of 
obedience to the decision of a majority, which related to their assump- 
tion of control over the social relations of life. These are bo nume- 
rous, so delicate, that I will not venture to depict the horrid conse- 
quences which must flow from an assumption, never before attempted, 
even in the most iguorant and barbarous ages of the world. 1 pass 
from all these, to consider the avowed political objects of this Asso- 
ciation. Where shall we look for these objects ? To the Philadel- 
phia Convention for its National Platform ? From the reports 1 have 
seen of its proceedings, I deny its Nationality altogether, [f tried 
by States, fifteen voted for it, fifteen States against it. If tried by 
the voles allowed in the Electoral College, the States that voted for 
it are entitled to one hundred and forty-six, whilst those that voted 
against it are entitled to one hundred and fifty votes. He must be a 
Know Nothing, indeed, who can believe, that a platform that was 
voted down, according to all correct modes of voting, is a National 
one. No, the attempt to nationalize this Know Nothing party, was 
a failure. All sensible men now see it, and all candid ones must ad- 
mit it. So evident was the fact, that twelve entire States withdrew 
and gave up the attempt. They fell back on their respective State 
organizations, as the Know Nothings of Tennessee will have to do, 
content with being a mere State faction, without aspiring to become 
a National party. The idea of Nationality for such a party was, in 
the very nature of things, an absurdity. What are the distinctive 
demands of Know Nothingism, as distinguishing them from the other 
parties of the country ? That Foreigners .-hall not lie allowed to vote 
in any of our elections, until they have been resident in the United 
States' twenty-one years, instead of five, and that Catholics shall not 
be allowed to hold office. Now the States alone can determine who 
may and who may not vote. Congress cannot do it. Why. then, 
• seek to elect a President, who cannot say, in his messages, one word 
on the subject? Why elect Know Nothing members of Congri 
who could not introduce a bill, nor vote for one, regulating the right 
to vote in our elections, without violating the Constitution and com- 
mitting downright perjury ? True, Congress- can change the Natu- 
ralization Laws, as they please, but that is a m-yy different thing from 
regulating the right to vote. Suppose the fact, that Naturalization 
should be prolonged from live to twenty-one year-. During all that 



( 10 ) 

time Foreigners and Catholics could still be voting in all our elections, 
if the respective States chose to permit them to do so. We therefore 
repeat, that the idea of forming a National party, for any purpose 
that cannot be effected by the National authorities, is,' in the very 
nature of things, an absurdity. 

But whether considered as a National or State party, when, let 
me ask, did this spasmodic alarm and dread of foreigners and Cath- 
olics first seize on those who now compose the Know Nothing party ? 
Not surely when Mr. Clay delivered the following speech in defence 
of. the American system, delivered in the Senate of the United States, 
February 3, 1832 : 

" The honest, patient and industrious German readily unites with 
"our people, establishes himself upon some of our fat lands, fills his 
" capacious barn, and enjoys in tranquility the abundant fruits which 
" his diligence gathers around him, always ready to fly to the standard 
" of his adopted country, or of its laws when called by the duties of 
"patriotism. The easy, versatile, philosophical Frenchman, accom- 
" modating himself to all the vicissitudes of life, incorporates himself 
" without difficulty in our society. But of all foreigners, none amal- 
"gamate themselves so quickly with our people as the NATIVES OF 
" THE EMERALD ISLE. In some of the visions which have 
"passed through my imagination, I have supposed that IRELAND 
" was originally part and parcel of this continent, and that by some 
" extraordinary convulsion of nature, it was torn from America, and 
" drifting across the ocean, it was placed in the unfortunate vicinity 
"of Great Britain. The same open heartedness, the same generous 
" hospitality, the same careless and uncalculating indifference about 
"human life, characterize the inhabitants of both countries. Ken- 
"tucky has sometimes been called the Ireland of America. And I 
" have no doubt that if the current of emigration were reversed, and 
" set from America upon the shores of Europe, instead of being from 
" Europe to America, every American emigrant to Ireland would 
" there find, as every Irish emigrant here finds, a hearty welcome 
"and a happy home." 

Let every freeman and admirer of this great man compare the 
sentiments of this speech with what he now hears from Know Noth- 
ing editors and speakers. If it be said, that it was delivered a great 
while ago, let it be remembered that Mr. Clay also remained in public 
life, the founder and the leader of the Whig party, almost down to the 
present day, without withdrawing the noble sentiments of this speech. 



(11 ) 

But no statute of limitation shall serve any Know Nothing, who in 
the last Presidential election voted for Gen. Scott In 1852 a letter 
was addressed to &en. Scott by a gentleman from Virginia in which 
he asked him ifihe was "in favor of the present naturalization laws 
or not." Gen. Soon wrote the following letter in reply: 

"Dear Sir:— As I have already said in my letter accepting (he 
nomination for the Presidency, I am in favor of the naturahzation 
jlaws as they stand, with the single addition, viz: g i Te the fall righl 
"of citizenship to every foreigner who shall in time of war serve one 
f^year onboard any United States ship-of-war, orin anv regular militia 
" or volunteer regiment. Yours truly, 

WINFIELD SCOTT." 

This letter holds every man who nominated or voted for (Jen 
Scott, with an iron grasp to the naturalization laws as they stt 
Gen. Scott said it when he accepted the nomination. He said it in 
the above letter in the progress of the canvass, and no Know Nothing 
who voted for him can hold np his head as a consistent man and 
stultify himself in waging this relentless war against foreigners and 
Catholics. It will answer no purpose for a Tennessee K now Nothing 
to say that he saw not these dangers in 1852 ; neither did he 
them as late as the beginning of the very last year, for your legisla- 
ture was then in session, and was decidedly composed of a majority 
of those who are most violent in this foreign and religions persecu- 
tion. You offered no resolutions declaring that there was danger 
" that Americans would not rule America. " You announced no fears 
that the Pope of Rome was about to destroy our liberties or that 
his followers were about to subvert all the Protestan( churches of 
America. No, you saw and feared none of these things or yon would 
have passed resolutions instructing your Senators and requesting your 
representatives to do something to avert such great calamities. 

This record is now full. I haw brought it down almost to the 
present moment. It prows thai no man who respects the opinii 
and memory of Heney Clay— that no man who was present aid 
assisted in the nomination of (Jen. Sr.rrr- no man who yoted for 
him— no member of the last legislature who failed to offer resolutions 
of instruction such as I have named, ought to be beard with any 
degree of patience or confidence in this new and Budden outcry 
against foreigners and Catholics. 

Still it may be asked what bat given rise to this riolent though 
recent alarm and hatred against our foreign and Catholi* population 



( 12 ) 

There is no such alarm and hatred against them. If they would 
agree to cast their votes hereafter against the Democratic party, all 
this persecution would end in twenty-four hours. Another Know Noth- 
ing convention would soon be convened in Philadelphia, and all their 
councils with their cabalistic mummeries and unlawful oaths, would be 
disbanded. No, they have nothing in reality against foreigners 
and Catholics, exeept that they have too generally cast their votes 
for such democrats as Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk and Frank- 
lin Pierce. " This is the head and front of their offending. " 

But they have a great deal against the Democratic party. To 
turn them out and put themselves into power, is in my humble judg- 
ment, the real object of this whole movement. The disfranchisement 
of our foreign and Catholic population is only the means by which this 
great aim and object is to be effected. Nothing less than this ambi- 
tion to rule and to distribute the offices and the revenues of the 
nation among themselves, can account for the vast preparations which 
have been made to secure success. It was for this that they have 
called themselves by more and different names, than were ever appended 
to a culprit in the longest bill of indictment — it was for this that they 
have wantonly violated every sacred principle of true Americanism in 
that sccrcsy which they have thrown around all their proceedings. 
The Americau party truly ! Why every thing American is open and 
public. The halls of Legislation must be open — our courts must be 
p Cn — our ballot box must be open ; until now, all our discussions 
must be open and public ones. American party truly! Why it is 
the very essence of monarchy and despotism to be secret. The edicts 
of the Emperor are prepared in secret. The British orders in council 
that gave rise to our second war of Independence were concerted in 
secret. The inquisitions of Spain were all in secret, and nothing but 
the last dying groans of the victim announced to the world that the 
work of torture and persecution for religion's sake, was performing its 
fiendish office. No, I repeat there is nothing American about this 
new order. 

American constitutions declare that no religious test shall ever be 
required as a qualification for office, but this order proclaims that there 
shall be a religious lest, that they will make one. That they will swear 
their candidates and followers not to appoint, a Catholic to 
any office, and if he finds one in office to turn him out— though 
he may be a Chas. Carroll, a Taney, or a Gaston. The cry of this 
party is, Turn him out, turn him out ! What discordant and conflicting 



(13 ) 

notes ! The Constitution says they shall n<i be excluded from office 
on account of their religious creed; this secret council, howevi 
declares they shall be. American Constitutions declare further thai 
all have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God 

according to the dictates of their own conscience. True, Bays this 
secret order, but if they do, I will punish them for it— the Catholic 

may worship God as he please, but if he does he shall not enjoy the 
privilege of holding any office whatever. We will make him 
work on our highways and pay taxes for the support of govern- 
ment on all his property. When war comes he shall light our 
battles, but he shall not rise much above the manumitted slave in his 
rights. 

Let us test this false and spurious claim to Americanism by 
another standard. He is to be subject to your laws; his life, his 
liberty, his character, his property are all to be affected by whatever 
aws may be passed, and yet he is to stand by and have no privilege 
of holding office under them. Who is he ? He is no foreigner. II" 
was born on the soil. What has he done ? lie has worshipped Cod 
according to the dictates of his own conscience in the Catholic form. 
Now is there one American principle that will justify his disfran- 
chisement? The principles and the very words of the Constitution 
will not, whilst those of the revolution that gave birth to that Con- 
stitution will not. And yet this new order, agaiasl the firsi prin- 
ciple of human right, against the great principles of the revolution, 
still demand his rejection from any office whatever, Federal. State, 
or municipal. I know well by what sophistry the crushing power 
of this argument is sought to be warded <»ff. It is said that 
his disfranchisement is demanded, not on aceounl of his reli- 
gious belief, but on account of the political perl of hi< religious 
belief. Why what nonsense ! How can a religions belief which is 
a unit, whatever it be, ever have a political part ? The political 
opinions of a Catholic are another unit, like that of all other religious 
denominations. Who ever heard of the political par! of the religious 
opinions of the Baptist, the Methodist, or the Presbyterian! Lei 
Know Nothings speak in language more intelligible and explicit. Le1 
them say at once that it is the political opinions and the Bupposed attach- 
ment and devotion of the Catholics to the temporal dominion of the 
Pope, that has stirred up all this wrath and indignation against them. 
But docs the Catholic of this country believe for one moment in Bach 



( 14 ) 

temporal authority ? The native Catholic you know does not. Chas. 
Carroll and all the Catholics in that grand convention which pro- 
claimed American independence of every king, prince and potentate 
on earth, you know did not — the foreign born citizen of this country, 
who has taken the oath of allegiance, you know does not believe any 
such temporal authority. Here is his precise oath : 

" I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution, and that 
I do absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and 
fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty what- 
ever, and particularly (by name) do I renounce forever all allegiance 

to , whereof I have heretofore been a citizen or subject." Now 

the Catholics of the United States are either native born or foreign. 
If native born he is the proud equal of any native born Know Noth- 
ing, and if that Know Nothing shall seek to exclude him from the 
ballot-box, it is a high handed usurpation, whether it be done by open 
violence or by the secret, midnight decrees of a junto. If he be a 
naturalized foreigner, then he has taken the above solemn oath in 
open court, that he will be true and faithful to the Constitution. But 
even this will not do. Some Know Nothing native might still suspect, 
that by some mental reservation, he yet retained some latent obe- 
dience to the government he had left. To remove, therefore, every 
possible objection, he is required to go beyond being faithful to the 
Constitution, and to abjure all allegiance to every prince, potentate 
and government whatever. Now will not this do? It was enough 
to satisfy Washington who signed the first naturalization laws. It 
was enough to satisfy Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison. It was 
enough to satisfy Mr. Clay through a long life of close observation 
of the workings of our American system. It was enough to satisfy 
all the great and good men who have gone before us, but still it is 
not enough for this new faction. Fatally bent upon power, they have 
evoked the element of religious persecution from its long slumbering 
repose, under our happy form of government, to aid in the work of 
their own unhallowed political ambition. Evoking it too in the face 
of the oft repeated and solemn declaration of the Catholic churches 
of the United States that they owed no obedience 1o the temporal 
power and jurisdiction of the Pope. In the pastoral letter sent from 
the council of Cincinnati in May, 1855, we have found the following : 
" We appeal to you brethren whether these have not been the lessons 
which we have uniformly taught you, both in our public and official 
communications, and in our most private conversations ; and whether 



( 15 ) 
we have not always instructed you that the powi r of the sovereign 
Pontiff which is spiritual in its objects and in its sphere of action, 

cannot by possibility clash with your civil allegiance or with I he 
different classes of duties which you as good citizens, owe to the govern- 
ment under which you happily live. Von will all bear us wit i 
without one dissenting; voice, that such has been our invariable teach- 
ing- on this subject and that this has also been your constant belief. " 

In a similar letter issued from the council of Baltimore in the same 
month, we find the same charge to the churches under their jurisdic- 
tion : " Beloved brethren, respect and obey the constituted authori- 
ties, for all authority is from God. To the General and State 
governments you owe obedience in all that relates to the civil 
order. You know that we have uniformly taught you both publicy 
and privately to perform all the duties of good citizens, and that we 
have never exacted of you, as we ourselves have never made to the 
highest ecclesiastical authority any engagements inconsistent with the 
duties we owe to the country and its laws. On every opportune 
occasion we have avowed these principles, and even in our communi- 
cations to the late Pontiff we rejected as a calumny that indvil 
matters we were subject to his authority. " 

In the pastoral letter issued by the Arch-Bishop and Bishops of 
New York in October, it is given in charge to their churches : " Your 
first duty is supreme loyalty to God and to your own holy faith. 
Your second, subordinate, but in its own sphere equally supreme, loyal- 
ty to your country in all her vicissitudes of prosperity or adversity, if 
God should so permit her to be tried. Next to your country, in this 
secondary order, your family, your kindred, your neighbors, your 
friends and enemies, your countrymen and all mankind. Be obedient 
to the laws. " 

These are the most recent official declarations and charges to the 
Catholics in America to which we have had access, and we submit 
them to the religious portion of our Protestant friends for their calm 
consideration. I am a Protestant in faith, in education, association, 
in every thing ; but God forbid that J should ever behold the tins of 
religious persecution rekindled in this our five and happy land. Per- 
secution is not the weapon to lie wielded by the Protestant churches 
for the propagation of a true and vital religion. No, give to the 
earnest and impetuous Methodist his Bible : give it to the Bteady and 
persevering Baptist ; give it to the profoundly and accurately educated 
Episcopalian and Presbyterian ; put that mighty weapon only in the 



( 16 ) 

hands of our various Protestant denominations, and then give to all 
of them an open field for reason and argument, and I believe a true, 
vital and saving religion will finally prevail over the world. Then, 
and not till then, will man's mission to earth have been accomplished. 
Then, and not till then, will he have attained that lofty elevation in 
the scale of existence, where he is farthest from sin and nearest to 
God. " In the fondness of hope, nay in the confidence of a firm con- 
viction, I maintain, that America is destined to be the grand theatre 
on which this work of man's highest destiny is to be accomplished. 
The Declaration of Independence proclaiming the only true and 
eternally just principles of government points to it — the war of the 
revolution baptising those principles in blood points to it — the 
passage of the act establishing religious freedom in one of the most 
powerful States of the Union, and as its consequence, in all others, 
all point with prophetic assurance, that here in our own Heaven- 
favored land, the glorious work is to be accomplished. Jefferson 
and Washington ! Washington and Jefferson ! Both now sainted 
in Heaven, but both selected by Divine Providence as the honored 
instruments of restoring to mankind their loug lost civil and religious 
liberties ! When Mr. Jefferson died he desired that no eulogy 
should be engraved on the marble which should cover him, but that 
" Here lies the author of the Declaration of Independence, and of the 
act for establishing religious freedom in Virginia. " 

Oh, if I could engrave that act, not its letters and its words, but 
its vital spirit, on the hearts of my countrymen in general— even on 
those of my religious friends and acquaintances in this State whose 
confidence I enjoy, and whose friendship I honor, I should esteem all 
the toils and labors of a long life more than repaid. I will read that 
noble document, I will print it, in order that every Methodist, and 
Baptist, and Presbyterian, or other denomination— that every Whig 
and Democrat and member of this new order, that ever heard my 
voice, may read and meditate upon it: 

AN ACT FOR ESTABLISHING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 

WRITTEN BY THoMAS JEFFERSON. 

Passed by the General Assembly of Virginia, December \bth, H84. 

" 1. Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free, that all 
"attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by 
" civil incapacitation, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and 



( 17 ) 

"meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of 
"our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, v.-t chose 
^ not to propagate it by coercions on cither, as was in his Almighty 
"power to do; that the impious presumption of Legislators and 

'Rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but 
" fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith 

"of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking 
"as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose 
"them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over 
" the greatest part of the world, and through all time ; that to com- 
"pel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation <>f 
" opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical ; that even 
"the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious 
"persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of jrivin- 
"his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals lie would 
" make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to 
"righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporal 
"rewards, which, proceeding from an approbation of their personal 
"conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting 
" labors for the instruction of mankind ; that our civil rights have no 
" dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions of 
" physics or geometry ; that therefore the proscribing any citizens as 
"unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity 
" of being called to offices of trust and emolument unless he profess, 
" or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously 
"of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with bis 
" fellow-citizens, he has a natural right ; that it tends only to corrupt 
"the principles of that religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing 
" with a monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments, those who will 
"externally profess and conform to it ; that though indeed those are 
"criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are 
"those innocent who lay the bait in their way ; that to suffer the civil 
"Magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion, and to 
"restrain the profession or propagation of principles 0D supposition 
" of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destn 
"all religious liberty, because he, being of course judge of that ten- 
"dency, will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or 
" condemn the sentiments of others only as tiny shall square with or 
" differ from his own ; that it is time enough for the rightful pur)., 
"of Civil Government, for its officers to interfere when principles 
2 



( 18 ) 

" break out into overt acts against peace and good order ; and finally, 
" that Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself ; that she is 
" the proper and sufficient antagonist to Error, and has nothing to 
" fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her 
" natural weapons, free argument and debate ; errors ceasing to be 
" dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them. 

" 2. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be 
" compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or place of 
"ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or 
" bnrthened in his body and goods, nor shall he otherwise suffer on 
" account of his religious opinions or belief ; but that all men shall 
" be free to profess, and by argument to maintain their opinions in 
" matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, 
" enlarge or affect their civil capacities. " 

Fellow citizens, there remains one other subject to which I invoke 
your most serious attention. It is the obvious tendency, nay certainty, 
that Know Nothingism can bring nothing but danger and disaster 
upon the Southern States. Know Nothingism was started in the 
North and had no other element to compose it but Whigs and Abo- 
litionists. It took its rise in the midst of the fire and smoke and 
suffocation of the wildest and most furious fanaticism against you and 
your property that the world ever saw. A fanaticism that tore the 
churches asunder. It took captive every Northern Legislature— sent 
to the Senate some of the most deadly enemies the South ever had. 
In the fury of the storm, the Northern democracy who had saved 
you in the annexation of Texas— saved you on the Wilmot Proviso 
question— saved you in the passage of the Fugitive Slave Bill— saved 
you in fact in all the battles you had ever fought to save your pecu- 
liar institution, was at last borne down or so far disabled by this 
mingled tempest of Freesoilism, Whigism and Abolitionism, as to 
give but little promise of that effectual aid in the future, which 
had so often saved us in the conflicts of the past. It was at such a 
dark hour to the hopes and interests of the South, that Know Noth- 
ingism was born in Massachusetts. It sought no alliance with the 
South— it needed none, it desired none. The Whigs of the South 
and the North had been forced to separate on all these slavery ques- 
tions and to dissolve a connexion which had proved nothing but embar- 
rassing to both the parties. They had struggled hard for years to 
prevent the catastrophe. The Kansas and Nebraska Bill hurried up 



( 19 ) 
the crisis, and on mature and solemn consultation, every Wbi - 
tor from the South save one dissolved the connection. 

So soon as that connection was dissolved, the Whigs of the North 
knowing that their nationality was lost, began the work of Fusion 
with the Freesoilers and Abolitionists. They saw the rapidly in- 
creasing States in the Northwest and became confident that in a few 
years at most, the North could elect the Pi and a maj 

both houses of Congress, not only without any aid, but i v.-n in despite 
of all the power of the South, Whigs and Democrats united. Bui what 
did the Whigs do after the dissolution with their Northern alii 
Many of them, to their honor be it spoken, many of their w\ 
statesmen and patriots, such as Gholsom of Virginia, and Toombs and 
Stephens of Georgia, refusing to go into this Enow Nothing scheme, 
boldly avowed that there were no materials outside of the Di ratic 
parry with which a coalition could be formed— that that party 
the soundest and safest one on all the questi ins in which the South 
was vitally interested, and that they were prepared and resolved 
co-operate with them on these great questions and thereb the 

calamities impending over the South. Not so with a moiety of that 
party— they convene in Philadelphia— they consult and commune 
with many whigs of the North, who had previously been discar 
as unsafe by Whigs of the South. They consult and comm 
with the Abolitionists of Massachusetts, of Ohio, of Vermont 
Connecticut, and implore them to form with them a national 
alliance— to come up with them on some common platform <>n 
which the uext Presidential, Congressional and State electi 
may be fought, "What reception did they receive at Philadel- 
phia? when they asked of thai ■ qj and and motley mixture of 
Northern Whigs, Freesoilers and Abolitionists to take them in as 
partners, they were instantly refected. When tiny pri rated their 
jdatform, full as it was of apology, and barren as it was of any 
guarantee to the South, it was distinctly voted down. 1 repeat with 
all the emphasis which this geat fact demands, that their alliance 
was rejected and their platform voted down ! Turn my countrymen 
to the Xniional J ■ June the 19th, 1855, and read with 

astonishment, as 1 know you mm' aid will do, the following account 
of their proceedings : 

"The New Fork Times publishes the rotea taken last week in the 
National Convention of the American party, on the three hading 
propositions touching the slavery question. Supposing that they will 



(20 ) 

possess interest for many of our readers we copy them below. It 
will be observed that the proposition which was finally adopted re- 
ceived the votes of the delegates of fifteen (15) States, including the 
free States of New York and California, whilst the delegates of fif- 
teen (15) other States, including the slave-holding State of Delaware, 
voted against it, Missouri seems not to have been represented. 
It further appears that the States which voted in the affirmative are 
a minority of the electoral college — they being entitled to 146 votes 
out of the 296 electoral votes." There is the record as furnished by 
the National Intelligencer. 

When taken by States the vote on the platform stood 15 to 15, 
when taken according to the votes in the electoral college it stood 150 
against it and only 146 for it. A national platform truly ! Voted 
down by States — voted down by the electoral College ! By the 
known rule in every Parliamentary or Legislative proceeding, a propo- 
sition receiving only a tie vote is rejected, but it seems by some new 
knmv-nothing rule it is adopted ! 

As long as this record shall live uncontradicted, let it be proclaimed 
that this Know Nothing party has no National existence — that all 
alliance with the Southern portion of the party has been scorned and 
rejected by the Whigs and Abolitionists of the North. That the 
proffered Platform was voted down, so indignantly, that twelve of 
the free States retired in disgust at the very proposition, and by se- 
ceding, marked it with their sovereign contempt. In a publication of 
these votes in the Georgia Telegraph, of July 3rd, furnished by the 
correspondent of the New York Times, which, he says, are entirely 
correct, the same result is shown — fifteen to fifteen, — not counting the 
State of Delaware which was equally tied, and therefore cast no 
vote, nor the District of Columbia, entitled to no vote at all — fifteen 
to fifteen in establishing a great National Platform. 

And now, my countrymen, tell me, you who have, and you who 
have not, joined this Secret and Midnight Juuto, — tell me, in the can- 
dor of men, and the sincerity of Christians, are you content with the 
poor guarantee which is furnished by this record, that you shall hence- 
forward enjoy twelve hundred millions of your property ? Why, it is 
no guarantee at all. 

Already you have been told by Wilsox and others, who are the 
Master Spirits of this party, that at the very next Congress, the bills 
are to be proposed that are to ruin you. That bills shall be brought 
forward, even in December next, to repeal the Fugitive Slave Law— 



( 21 ) 

to repeal the Kansas and Nebraska Law — to restore the Missouri < Jom- 
promise — to abolish Slavery in theDistrict of Columbia. Hare th 
Delegaies brought yon home any satisfactory assurance that their 
Northern Allies will stand by yon and protect your property ? Why, 
you know they hare not — you know that the Know Nothing States 
of the North have already had their elections, and have returned to 
the next Congress a majority, a large majority, who will vote for 
every one of the bills I have mentioned. You stand, therefore, this 
day, ruined in the House of Representatives, and your only hope of 
salvation is in the Senate. Have the Know Nothing Dele- 
brought you any guarantee that their friends will stand by you and 
your vast amount of property in that body ? Xo. Not the least, for 
there stands Wilson, and every one of his newly elected Know Noth- 
ing comrades, stauding, sword in hand, to cleave you and your prop- 
erty down, the moment the next Congress shall meet. On whom, 
then, can you, and on whom do you rely, in fact, for the defeat of 
these odious bills in the Senate ? You are bound to say that yon rely 
on the Southern and Northern Democratic Senators to defeat them. 
On Democratic Senators! Why, then, have you entered into this 
unholy conspiracy, to have them beaten and turned out of the Senate 
Chamber? Why go down into the secret places of the earth, and 
swear your deluded followers everywhere, never to vote for a Demo- 
crat who- does not become a member of your Order, when you ac- 
knowledge that at this, the very darkest and most trying moment 
the South ever saw, your only hope for deliverance is on Democratic 
Senators ! Tell me, again, as honest, candid men,— if these virtues 
have not fled the Earth,— tell me, if these measures should chance to 
pass the Senate, where would be your last, lingering hope of Bafetj to 
your property, but in the Veto of Franklin Pierce ? And yet Know 
Nothing Delegates, many of whom were mere broken down political 
hacks, or disappointed office-seekers, who have neither the talents or 
the character to attract attention, undertake to denounce Franklin 
Pierce and the Democracy which nominated and elected him ! Ma- 
levolence could poison the javelin, but the puny arm of the assailant 
was too feeble to cast it high enough to reach the destined victim. 
Democracy smiled at the impotence of the deed, and only wished thai 
its ingratitude might not wound the spiril of the Bainted .1 ickson. 

But, gentlemen, whilst I decline a further notice of these puny as- 
saults on the Democratic party and the Preaidenl of its choice, I have 
not done with this Know Nothing Philadelphia Convention yet 1 



(22 ) 

demand to know what authority did the Southern Delegates ever re- 
ceive from their Southern constituency to go into Convention with 
open, notorious, and avowed Abolitionists of the North ? Why, it is 
these very Abolitionists that have, for years, waged this vindictive 
war upon your peace, safety, and property ! What right had you 
to go into consultation with them, and shake their bloody hands in 
amity and friendship ? The Know Nothing Councils of Ohio, of Mas- 
sachusetts, of Vermont, of Connecticut, and nearly all the rest, reek- 
ing in the fumes of a nauseous abolitionism, had officially notified you 
that they were still your enemies, and would never give over their- 
aggressions upon your rights. Even Barker, who presided over your 
deliberations, had proclaimed to you, in the way of learning, before 
you assembled, that the views of Northern Know Nothings coincided, 
on the Slavery question, with those of William H. Seward. What 
right had you, then, with this warning sounding in your ears, to com- 
mit the fate of the South to any such unholy consultation, when fifteen 
States of the North told you, by their votes against your proffered 
Platform— when twelve of them told you, by seceding, that they 
scorned any association with you — why did you not yourselves indig- 
nantly withdraw, and proclaim, as the Southern Whig Senators did 
on the Nebraska Bill, (except one,) that all hopes of co-operation 
with the Know nothings of the North on the Slavery question were 
vain and nugatory ? Then you could have returned like patriots, 
and instead of pouring out anathemas on the Democrats, (the only 
friends you have left in the world, and on Franklix Pierce, whose 
every action has been true as steel to our Southern rights, whatever 
you may think of his administration in other respects,) then, I repeat, 
you could have returned like patriots, warning your friends and kin- 
dred, and countrymen of the South, to war against each other no 
longer about the ancient points of party difference; but, like a band 
of suffering Brethren, to be of one heart and one mind, in the great 
crisis which was approaching. But instead of exhibiting a noble and 
patriotic spectacle like that, what do we behold ? You come home, 
flourishing a Platform which was never passed either by States, or 
according to the votes of the Electoral College, and vainly, I will not 
say falsely, pretending that you have obtained guarantees from the 
North which you have not obtained, for they were voted down by a 
tie vote in your presence. G uarantees that our slave property shall 
be protected in the Territories as well as in the States — that it shall 
not be abolished in the District of Columbia — that the Fugitive Slave 



( 23 ) 

Law shall never be repealed, and that no attempt shall be made 
exclude Kansas or any other State from admission into the Uni 
because they may tolerate slavery. Under such vain pretences, by 
exertions the most indefatigable and means the most questionable, 
you are seeking to hold your oath-bound legions together, and to ob- 
tain a triumph over the only party now in existence, that is either 
willing- or able to save the South. Your oath-bound legions ! It is 
that oath, if Know Nothingism prevails, that has dug the grave of 
the South, and buried in it twelve hundred millions of her property ! 

"I do solemnly swear, that in all things, political or social, so far 
"as this Order is concerned, I will comply with the will of the ma- 
jority, though it may conflict with my personal preference | " 

I will comply with the will of a majority ! Though a Si v krd, a 
Hale, or a Wilson, shall lie nominated for President, there stands 
the ill-fated and luckless oath, and come what may, it must be 
deemed! Say not that I color this picture too darkly. Say nol 
that, in the event of a nomination that is so fatal to all that is near 
and dear to the South, the Know Nothing leaders would call upon 
their followers to disband and renounce the horrid and infernal oath 
they have taken. Be not deceived. The conscientious and good man 
may doubt whether he can renounce that oath, after it has once b 
recorded in the High Chancery of Heaven. Herod was thunder- 
struck when the head of John the Baptist, was demanded. He 
knew it would be cruel and unprovoked murder. Nevertheli 
the oath's sake, he delivered it in a charger. I will comply with the 
will of a majority ! Jephtha, too, when in the act of sacrificing Irs 
only daughter, and when he would willingly have surrendered hi- own 
life' to have saved her, felt impelled by a false but overruling mo- 
rality, and exclaimed, "I have opened my month to the Lord, and 1 
cannot go hack." Execrable oath ! Abhorred be the man that de- 
vised it ! It was a blow struck at the noble faculties of reason and 
conscience, as the guides of human action— a fatal blow to the rights 
of the South, to the Constitution and the (Jnion. 

'•Her wing shall tie' Eagle flap o'er the false-hearted, 
His warm blood, tic Wolf shall lap. ere life i»- departed; 
shame and dishonor sit by hi- grave ever, 
Blessings shall hallow it. never! Oh, nev< r! " 



^VnMmuuw 



\,UkV 



OF 



EX-GOY. AARON V. BROW] 



AT 



&SFOXVILLE, TENST., 



OCTOBER, 185 4. 



N A SB VILLE: 

J. F. MORGAN, PRINTER, No. 58, COLLI ftBHT. 



ABERE S S 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

You do wrong in calling me to address you on 
the present occasion : WroDg to me for want of previous 
notice, and consequently for want of proper preparation : 
Wrong to that elaborate and able address to which you have 
just listened, no word of which I would obliterate from your 
recollections : Wrong to this noble occasion, when every 
thing around us is speaking to you in language more 
eloquent and effective than any which I can hope to utter. 
The Farmer is here, speaking to you through the rich and 
varied productions of his fields : The Manufacturer is here, 
speaking to you through his curiously wrought and costly 
fabrics : The Mechanic is here, speaking to you through 
the wonderful ingenuity of his peculiar art : But, above all, 
the fair Daughters and Matrons of East Tennessee are here, 
speaking to you in the delicate texture of their own handi- 
work, and shedding over the exhibitions of the day the 
light of their presence and approbation. Well might we 
exclaim, " The Occasion speaks for itself." 

But what is the this Occasion ? To appreciate its im- 
portance, we must fully understand it. It is no isolated 
and disconnected movement of the people of this part of 
the State, to accomplish some local and temporary purpose, 
and then to pass away, never to be repeated. No, Fellow- 
citizens, we have assembled under the authority of the law, 
as a duly constituted Agricultural College and Mechanic 
Institute, rounding off and completing that grand and com- 



AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 



prehensive system of Education which Tennessee has devi- 
sed for the advancement and improvement of her people. 

This Agricultural Bureau, or College, for really it is no- 
thing else, has been located at the seat of government as 
the common centre of the State. It has been duly char- 
tered, with ample powers to locate similar Institutions in 
each of the grand divisions, and indeed in every county in 
the State. In pursuance of these powers that one has 
been established, on whose exercises and duties we are 
this day engaged. Until the last session of your Legisla- 
ture, our system of popular Education had never been fully 
and completely established. At different periods of her 
history, the State had erected Universities and Colleges, 
and endowed them with all the liberality which her means 
and condition would admit of. She had also diligently hus- 
banded her resources for the establishment of county Aca- 
demies and Common Schools. Individual liberality and 
devotion to the cause of learning had generously come to 
her aid in building up male and female Colleges and Insti- 
tutes, of the highest respectability and usefulness. These 
were intended to meet the mere literary and scientific wants 
of the country, whilst Law Schools, Medical Colleges, and 
Theological Seminaries of high repute, had been proviiled, 
partly by individual and partly by State endowment, for 
the benefit of those who desire to betake themselves to the 
learned professions. 

Still it was evident that, as yet, however creditable and 
praiseworthy had been our exertions, we had done little or 
nothing for the education of the millions who at no distant 
day are to inhabit our State — little or nothing for the far- 
mers and planters, the manufacturers, the mechanics, and 
artisans of every description. Where were they to go, in 
order to learn and grow proficient in their respective call- 
ings ? Where, even to exhibit the products of their untu- 



AGRICULTUK \l. ADDR] 

tored industry, and by observation and com; 
pace with the rapid and wonderful improv of th 

The Legislature at its last session i Jed nobly to 

questions; and the people every where, from your rftounl ains 
here in the East to the shores of the ft [ississi ,y- 

ing and confirming their action — enrolling th 
members of Agricultural Societies — appointing times for 
their frequent meetings — making Arrangements for their 
public Fairs — s ig men of sound pi to 

lecture on Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. In f 
doing every thing to organize and arrange these new Insti- 
tutions, upon the best plan to secure the great object in- 
tended by the Legislature. In this view, how great, how 
beneficent, how sublime is the present occasion ! 

When this degree of Education and this mode of im- 
parting it to the Agriculturist aud the Mechanic was first 
proposed, many doubted its success ; but the spirit which 
animates this large assembly — the spirit whioh ani 
the seven or eight thousand persons assembled at Nash- 
ville and Gallatin on a similar occasion, gives unerring evi- 
dence of a final and triumphant victory over ev^ 
cle. It is a spirit not of wild disorder and destruction, but 
of rational progress and improvement. It wages i. 
and bodes no evil to any of the other institutions of soci- 
ety, but generously seeks to aid, to enlarge and perfect 
them, until all men, of all classes and all . ball 

participate in their ' ing If it be thought ay, 

that the means apj ited by the Leg! 

quate to the great end designed, let it I . i that 

this is but the beginning — a mere I if 

started right and gusi I with proper cannjotnt. 
means will never be withheld in so good a cau. 
it is not money that can best accv t is so mi 

desired. It requires zeal, energy, determination, n 



AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 



than money. Take an Agricultural Society for an exam- 
ple. What need for money ? To build some stately edi- 
fice in which to hold their monthly or stated meetings ? — 
Some neighboring church, some Odd Fellows or Masonic 
Hall, or even some capacious school house, will fitly serye 
for that purpose. Is it to procure standard and scientific 
works, and ably conducted periodicals on agricultural sub- 
jects ? A small contribution by individuals, always to be 
had in a generous and liberal country like this, can easily 
procure them. Is it to pay salaries to able and competent 
lecturers ? Why, you are to be your own lecturers ! Your 
own members and others of your fellow citizens from other 
societies, will be the very best orators on such occasions. 
They will give you the oratory of facts, the eloquence of 
experiment and observation. The exercises of the society 
will consist often in discussions or debates among them- 
selves, of all the disputed problems of agricultural science; 
of critcisms on the prevailing modes of building farm- 
houses, barns, and other plantation fixtures; on planting out 
orchards; the selection of fruits ; making fences ; on plowing 
and otherwise cultivating the different varieties of crops. 
Now all these things can .be done and ought to be done 
without any great deal of money. The great object is to 
awaken enquiry, to excite emulation, to stimulate to the 
highest exertion, by the distribution of premiums and me- 
dals as the rewards of merit, and the incentives to indus- 
try. An earnest and energetic people, firmly resolved to 
inform and improve themselves on one of the most impor- 
tant sciences ever known to man, cannot fail of success. 

In no portion of the State would the results of that suc- 
cess be more striking and gratifying than in East Tennes- 
see. For more than half a century you have been moun- 
tain bound, and consquently excluded, save at vast expense, 
from the great market places of the world. Deprived by 



AGRICULTURAL AD] I 



the fiat of JNature of the usual stimulus to action, you 
have put forth no great agricultural or m. ehanical ion. 

Your houses were not promptly and neatly repaiii .. \ our 
orchards were left unpruned and neglected, your best grass 
and meadow lands were unreclaimed, your fields Were culti- 
vated with a slovenly indifference, both as it regards dura- 
bility and production. Indeed, the whole aspect of your 
country was that of a dissatisfied and desponding people, 
ready to seize the first opportunity to sell out and be oft', 
to some new and more favored land. But now, how chan- 
ged the scene ! The genius of Internal Improvement has 
waved his magic wand over you, and house and field and 
orchard, all the splendid exhibitions of this day's Fair, pro- 
claim you a contented, happy, and prosperous people. The 
traveler pauses and tells you in vain of the rich prairies of 
Texas, or the deep alluvion of the Arkansas. Even his 
gorgeous discription of the diamond-studded and gold-glit- 
tering California, can extort from you nothing more than 
the reply, "East Tennessee is good enough for me." And 
so it is, my countrymen. After years of travel and obser- 
vation, I cordially endorse the sentiment, that East Ten- 
nessee is good enough for you, good enough for any laxly. 
Where, upon this continent, can you gaze upon a more va- 
ried and lovely landscape than now spreads out before you ! 
Hill and dale, forest and field, torrents gushing from the 
mountain side, and streamlets gently flowing through ral- 
lies fragrant with flowers of perpetual bloom ! Fur' her oft* 
in the distance, we behold mountains in which lie imbedded, 
in close proximity, the largest supply of coal and iron ore, 
that the whole Appalachian chain can boast. In the oppo- 
site direction, but in full view, lies another range of moun- 
tains, from whose bosom are daily homo in ; : ! treas- 
ures of copper and other valuable minerals. Between th 
mountains lie a succession of luxuriant vallies, rrrigated by 



8 AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 

streams of unrivalled purity, and capable of sustaining in 
elegance and plenty ten fold their present population. Into 
these vallies the iron horse is already making his resistless 
way, and waking to his fiery tread the slumbering echoes 
of six thousand years. When to these mere geographical 
advantages we add the charms and attractions of a popula- 
tion of whom it may be well said, without poetic license, 

" Where Man is brave and Woman true, 
And free as mountain air,*' 

who would exchange his own native or adopted East Ten- 
nessee for any other land on the globe ! 

I pause at this point in the current of my observations, 
to submit a few remarks on the joint action and influence 
of railroads and these Agricultural Fairs. I hail their ad- 
vent into our country not for the riches they confer. They 
will make you rich — rich in the increased value of your 
lands — in the annual increase of their products — in the de- 
velopement of your amazing mineral resources — in every 
way they will make you rich — but who can repress the fear 
that they may also make you a proud and luxurious peo- 
ple; Not so much, therefore, for the wealth they may be- 
stow, do I hail and welcome them, as because they are well 
calculated to make us a contented and settled people — con- 
tented with our State, with our particular region of the 
State, with our homes and our firesides. 

No people, whether ancient or modern, have made any 
striking progress in the elegant or even comfortable arts of 
life, until they have become thus contented and settled. 
Until then, there will be no elegant and costly mansip 
no wide spread and verdant lawns, no ample and convenient 
institutions of learning, no temples of religion lifting their 
lofty spires to the skies ; all these are too much selected 
or postponed, in the restless enquiry about other and I 
ter lands, where mountains do not interpose their eternal 



AGRICULTURAL ATM)!. 



barriers to the approach to market, and whose interminable 
forests will not require a whole life time to reclaim the 
land and put it in a condition for successful cultivation. 
The census tables exhibit an annual drain from our State, 
for which no want of climate or soil can account. Illinois 
and Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, have gained hundreds 
and thousands from us, during the trying and unsettled 
period to which which we have alluded. But those days 
have passed. Our mountains are being levelled, or we are 
bursting through them, many thousand feet below their 
summits. The heavy forests of the middle and western 
portions of the State have given way before the sturdy 
blows of the axeman, until their fields, like yours, will soon 
begin to resemble a blooming and cultivated garden. Our 
whole system of Internal Improvement is in the course of 
rapid completion, and we shall then see the accumulated 
products of our mines and our forests, of our fields and 
our workshops, wending their way to the great market pla- 
ces of the world. 

From the observations which we are now making, you 
will perceive, that according to my views, Tennessee is just 
now in a condition to enter fairly upon a career of Agricul- 
tural, Manufacturing and Mechanical Improvement. Let 
no man reproach her for supposed negligence in the past. 
Let no man institute comparisons to her disparagement 
with older and once more favored States of the Union, for 
not commencing sooner. The early settlement of Tennes- 
see commenced in blood. The red man of the forest war- 
red against you at every step of your progress. Your own 
end of the State is studded with battle grounds, where your 
fathers signalized their valor. Nashville, and indeed all 
Middle Tennessee, was one vast theater of Indian warfare 
and depredation. When these were over, our early pioneers 
had to contend with heavy and interminable forests, year 



10 AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 

after year reclaiming but a few acres from its inexorable 
dominion. It is no over estimate of fact to say, that it 
required two entire generations to open land enough and 
to put it in reasonable condition for cultivation, to meet in 
abundance and plenty, the current wants of the people. 
During this tedious but unavoidable process, how nobly she 
has sustained herself in all her social and political relations 
with her sister States of the Union. She has furnished 
already, before her Indian forts have disappeared or her 
earliest log cabins have mouldered down, two Presidents to 
the Republic, five members of the Cabinet, and many For- 
eign Ministers. In war — in every war — she has sent forth 
a full proportion of her gallant sons, to sustain the violated 
rights or the insulted honor of the nation. 

But Tennessee can need no labored vindication from me. 
Having secured her safe lodgement in the wilderness, having 
felled her forests, having provided well for the literary wants 
and professional demands of her people, she now enters 
upon the final and noble work of advancing and improving 
her Agricultural and Mechanical interests. I shall speak of 
Agriculture first, as the great interest of the State. It is 
the great interest of every State. It is in fact, the sub- 
stratum or foundation of all others. It spreads every sail 
and drives forward every car of commerce. It gives motion 
to the vast machinery of manufactures, and nerves to vig- 
orous exertion the arm of the mechanic, the artisan, and 
the day laborer. There is, indeed, no subsistence to man 
or to beasts that he subjects to his control, without it. In 
the terse and expressive language of an old adage, " It 
makes all, pays all, and supports all." It is not only the 
most necessary, but it is the natural and most ancient em- 
ployment of man. Adam was created a farmer: born such, 
and deeply to impress upon him the advantages of rural 
life and occupation over all others, he was located on a farm 



AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 11 



or garden, surrounded with its fruits and vines and flowers. 
This Divine indication of the proper and best pursuit of 
man, has been faithfully preserved through all ages and 
nations to the present day. The patriarchs preserved it, in 
the ownership of their extensive flocks and herds: the 
apostles, or at least some of them, preserved it, by labor- 
ing in the field whilst engaged in the sublime vocation of 
regenerating the human family; among the Greeks and 
Romans, the greatest Philosophers and proudest Patricians 
disdained not the cultivation of the soil with their own 
hands. Cincinnatus, in the hour of peril, went forth, not 
from the Capitol, but from the plough handle, to shield and 
save his country. And it is precisely from such situations 
that the purest patriots and statesmen have been most fre- 
quently selected. Washington was called for, from his 
fields, far distant from the first outbreak of the Revolution, 
and Jackson sighed when he left the precincts of the Her- 
mitage "to sway the Executive sceptre of a mighty em- 
pire." There can be no other employment so well calcula- 
ted to inspire deep and undying sentiments of patriotism. 
In this country a large proportion of those engaged in Agri- 
culture, are the owners of the soil. The title has been 
secured to them by the laws of the land. The very fields 
which they cultivate may have been moistened by the blood 
of some honored ancestor, in repelling the rude invasion of 
the red man. Thus consecrated by paternal valor, they will 
relinquish it only with their lives. And such has been the 
lesson taught us by American history. The officers and 
soldiers of the Revolution were Farmers, and the sons of 
Farmers. They waited not for forma! proclamations and 
the slow-moving ceremonies of military organization. Like 
Putnam, many of them literally left their p'oughs in the 
furrow, and hastened to the tented field What a lesson 
to the legis'ators and statesmen of our land. What an 



12 AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 

appeal to them, loud as the thunders of the Revolution, to 
make haste, by all the means in their power to identify 
every freeman and citizen of America, with the broad and 
fertile acres of our pub : ic domain. 

" What constitutes a State ? 
Not high raised battlements, and labored mound, 

Thick wall or moated gate ; 
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crooned, 

Not bays and broad-armed ports. 
Where, laughing at the storm, proud natives ride ; 

Not starred and spangled courts, 
Where low-brow'd baseness, waits perfume to pride. 

No, Men ! high-minded men ! 
Men who their duties know ; 

But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain."' 

This noble profession, for such in eveiy respect it deserves 
to be called, although the most ancient and useful, has, how- 
ever, been most neglected. Apprenticeship, or some spe- 
cific course of instruction, seems to have been considered 
necessary in all other pursuits. How many years of hard 
and laborious study have to be employed in the University 
or College, with its Greek and Latin, its Mathematics and 
Philosophies, in order duly to qualify the Lawyer, Physi- 
cian, or the Theologian ? Not so has it been with the 
Planter and the Farmer. How to wield the axe, to hold 
the plow, or to swing the scythe, has comonly been regarded 
as the sum total of a Farmer's education. No wonder then, 
if not knowing by instimi, the nature of the soil he had to 
cultivate, the adaptation of manures to the soil and to the 
crop, the natures of the plants theycultiva ,ed, the food they 
require and the best method of administering that food, in 
order to produce health and vigor and fruit — no wonder, I 
repeat, if farmers, not knowing these things by instinct, 
have been generally content to pursue the course their 
fathers have pursued, and to rely on the earth and seasons, 
good fortune and Providence, to help them out at the end 
of the year ! 



AGRICULT1 .. •.!. \r 



I pause in order to point out to anothej 
for the neglect aud low condition of Agricultural ki 
Who is it in most of our families that i ud 

devoted to the business of farming 1 No1 
and energetic, whoso prog ■ at school | 
likely to become eminent in whatever the}" pursue — d . 
these — the bar, the healing art, or t] tpit, ta 

and leave a profession which a Washington b 
t-e less promising members of the family. " 0, h do 

for a farmer," says many a farmer, when speaking of one 
of his most unpromising boys. Well, if he will, thai 
would say to that father, he will do for anything else. Give 
him the same general education at school. Let him t; 
lessons in the College under the professor of Agricul; 
the other son does under the professor of law. When In- 
comes out into the world, let him lecture and debate in 
Agricultural societies as the other p he courts of 

law, and my word for it, the accomplished h- 
no higher honor o the family than will tin; educated, digni- 

I and enlightened farmer, 
ud why should not the planter and farmer claim i q 
r. rk in this country, wi h the ian ur 

<i rgyman — rank in public employment — r. Lai 

circle? Why should he stand back in any a 
feriority to either of the His general educati 

good — as learned in his p*r< — remum 

by as large profits, and expending thoa profits in charities 

beneficientj and h< as el 

and forward as the compeer of all or an)- of tin m V 
us set our faces against unjust disorimii 
these, which have long e: and which b, thoi 

in gree than formerly; I 

to labor in every honorable pursuit. 

We would submit to y oilar ol Q with 



14 AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 



more striking emphasis in relation to our mechanics and 
artisans. They too, by some strange infatuation, have failed 
to acquire in some degree their just position in the social 
circles of life. They do not often mingle in full fellowship 
at the festive board and evening parties of the rich, the 
gay and the fashionable. The merchant, the extensive 
manufacturer, the lawyer and the physician, the man of 
science and letters is there in free and unrestrained hilari- 
ty — but by a sort of silent acquiescence by both parties, 
the mechanic and tradesman but rarely is seen to mingle in 
the throng. Yet, in the eloquent language of an extract 
which I have seen this morning in one of your city papers, 
" tbey are the palace builders of the world, not a stick was 
hewn, not a stone was shaped, in all the lordly dwellings of 
the rich, which does not owe its beauty and its fitness to 
the mechanic's skill. The spires that raise their giddy 
heights among the clouds, depend on the mechanic's art 
for their strength and symmetry. The thousands of noble 
ships that cover the seas of the world ; the magnificent 
steamers that plow the northern lakes and western rivers ; 
the swift locomotives that traverse through the States with 
the rapidity of lightning, are all the constructions of that 
noblest of human beings, the mechanic. Not an edifice for 
devotion, for business, for comfort, but bears the impress of 
their handiwork. How exalted is their calling, how noble 
their pursuits, how sublime their avocation! ' A class of 
our fellow-citizens deserving encomiums so high, ought not 
to be neglected or slighted in any of the educational ar- 
rangements of the State. In every University and Col- 
lege, there should be professorships endowed for full and 
accurate instruction in the general principles of the mechani- 
cal sciences. In our Academies and Common Schools, text 
books should be introduced and all the information impart- 
ed which circumstances would allow of. But it must be 



AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. r, 



after all, in Mechanic's Institutes, that the highest degi 
of general improvement may be expected. They Bhould 
exist in every city, town and village, these being the pla< 
whore most of our mechanics reside. By private or public 
contribution, small but well selected libraries should bo pro- 
vided. They should meet frequently, to hear lecture and 
addresses from those who may be best calculated to impart 
instruction. Each Institute should hold its own Fairs, ;1 ;„I 
come forth at the general one, in proud exhibition of its 
progress and improvement. Simple as these means may 
seem, a steady and energetic application of them cannot 
fail to obliterate existing distinctions in social life, and exalt 
honest labor in every department to its proper dignity and 
rank. If I were asked what constituted the true nobility 
of manhood, I should answer labor — labor of the head — 
labor of the heart — labor of the hand. By it, man has ac- 
complished all his great achievements since the day it was. 
declared "thou shalt live by the sweat of thy brow." 
From that day, labor became Heaven's great ordinance for 
the improvement of mankind. It has scanned the Heavens, 
and discovered all the beauties of creation. It has encom- 
passed the earth and brought forth the richness of her val- 
lies and all the glittering treasures of her mountains. 

It has reared our habitations and sent forth the fairest 
flocks and herds upon the hills. It has built the ship and 
guided it in safety through distant oceans. It has opened 
the bosom of the earth and given to man all its teeming 
fruits essential to his subsistence. It has laid at our icet 
with a provident care, the contributions of every soil and 
climate. With magic hand it has touched the lightning 
and sent it flashing round the world, speaking the language 
and uttering the sentiments of every people who inhabit it. 
In fine, the labor of the mind, of the heart, of the hand, 
has and will conquer all things. The earth, the seas, the 



1G AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 

winds will nil stand subdued in its all-prevailing presence 
and power ! Who, then, shall be ashamed of either intel- 
lectual or manual labor? Ashamed to obey the high ordi- 
nance of God — ashamed of the hard hand, because it be 
scarred with honorable service — ashamed of the dingy 
workshop or the dusty labor-field — ashamed of his soiled 
and weather-beaten garments — soiled by the sun whom he 
has beaten in his early risings, by the rain, whose descend- 
ing torrents he has defied, in the noble discharge of indus- 
try and duty ! Say not ashamed of these. It is treason 
to nature! It is impiety to Heaven! 

But I honor not labor, mental or manual, if its sole or 
even chief object be sordid and selfish. What honor would 
Franklin deserve for snatching the lightning from the clouds, 
if his object had not been the peace and safety of his fei- 
low-crcuturus in the hour of storm and of tempest. What 
credit is due to him who invented the printing press, that 
great instrument of civilization and refinement, if his pur- 
pooes were only "to set mankind by the ears" and to put 
money in his purse, out of the strifes and dissentions which 
he himself" had created. If Fulton looked not to the good, 
the moral good as well as to the gains of mankind, his sub- 
lime invention of the power and application of steam loses 
nearly all its value, in the eyes of a sound and benevolent 
philosophy. The labor of Whitney in inventing the cotton 
gin, of Arkwright for spinning, and Cartwright for weaving, 
did indeed lead mankind to the acquisition of great wealth; 
but they also brought honorable and useful employment and 
with them abundance and plenty and joy to many millions 
of the human family. For this I honor them. For this I 
honor all the great improvements and inventions of the age 
intended to advance mankind to the highest state of moral 
improvement — to make them good as well as great — happy 
as well as rich. But there never has been and never can 



AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. J7 



be happiness without employment — that degree of ei. 
meat, intellectual or manual, which we call labor. Man may 
build his palaces; he may adorn his grounds and throw 
around him all the blandishments of Asiatic luxuriance ; still 
if he have not employment, something constant y to < all 
forth his energies, he becomes languid and dig 
The merchant must embark in new enterprises, even though 
former success had invited to retirement and repose. The 
lawyer and the statesman engage in new encounters in the 
forum and the Senate house, long after either necessity or 
fame have invited them to the conflict. The great warrior 
of antiquity, reposing on the laurels of an hundred con- 
quests, still sighed for more victories and more nations to 
subdue. All this is by a great and fixed law of nature. 
Without this law the body of individual man would sicken 
and die. His mind grow trivial and effeminate. Without 
it, even nations could not survive the blighting, suffocating 
influeuce of inglorious ease. Tyre and Sidon, Babylon and 
Palmyra, even Imperial Rome, laden with the spoils of the 
world, could not escape the stern and inexorable penalties of 
this law. 

There are no lessons in History more impressive than 
these. The same law and the same penalty have been im- 
posed on our own country. I mean the great law of labor 
and continued exertion. Let us all pay to it the homage of 
a prompt and ready obedience. Nay, more. Let us honor 
the men of toil and labor, intellectual, moral and manual, 
who go forth into the field of industry, science and art — who 
go with stout arms and brave hearts amid the strufrcliixr 

^ DO O 

elements, to fight the battle of human progress and im- 
provement throughout the world. And where should that 
great battle be so well fought as here in our own young and 
vigorous America? We have already fought the battle .<f 
human liberty and flashed the light of our triumph over half 



18 AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 

the habitable globe. In the fondness of hope, nay in the 
confidence of a firm conviction, I maintain that America, in 
the Providence of God, is destined to be the grand theater 
of man's moral and intellectual advancement, to the very 
highest degree of perfection, Be not startled at the bold- 
ness of this word perfection, We mean not that of angels, 
but of men. The great seal of divinity stamped upon 
him, stamped on his origin, on his destination, makes him 
and perfection one and inseparable. 

" How complicate, how wonderful is man : 
Dim miniature of greatness absolute, 
A worm ! a God ! 

Extremes how wide, how wonderful ! and yet as sure as 
in his feebleness he is a worm, so surely in his capabilities 
he is a God. Slowly it may be but certainly, step by step, 
he must and will rise upward to his lofty destination. Be 
not incredulous. Look backward into the dark ages of his 
existence and mark how low he was on the scale of his 
being; the mere savage, the barbarian : Compared with then, 
how noble, how majestic he now stands, with all his temples 
dedicated to learning and piety and good government 
around him! He is yet, however, only midway in his high 
career ; but he can now behold reflected from his native 
skies, not only "the dim miniature," but the bright por- 
traiture of his future greatness. 



LETTEE 



TO THE 



BISHOPS, ELDERS, AND OTHER MINISTERS^ 



ITINERANT AND LOCAL, 



OF THE 



M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH. 



BY EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



NASHVILLE: 

G. C. TORBETT AM) COMPANY. 

1855. 



LETTER 



TO THE 



BISHOPS, ELDERS, &c 



The son of a now sainted father, who, for forty years, 
ministered at your altars, the co-laborer of that noble band 
of Christian ministers, who, under Asbury and Coke, 
founded your Church in America, presumes, in all due 
respect, to address this letter to you. He sends it to you 
as the honored representatives of a religious denomination, 
whose creed he approves, and whose growth and pro- 
gress he has witnessed for years with the highest satisfac- 
tion ; he sends it under a firm conviction that the 
continued prosperity of your Church and the interest of 
true and vital Religion may be promoted by the sugges- 
tions it contains. 

From the foundation of our government, it has been a 
conceded and settled doctrine^ that the various religious 
denominations should not, as sucli^ intermeddle with the 
political contests of the day. No instance is now remem- 
bered where they have done so. But, at the same time, 
it has been equally conceded and settled, that individual 
members, whether official or lay, had the unquestioned 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



right to form, express, and, on suitable occasions, to incul- 
cate, their opinions on all questions of public policy which 
might be started and contested in the country. Not only 
have they this right, but I hold it to be the duty of all 
good Christians to contribute, by their opinions and coun- 
sels, to the perfection of human government. That will 
be a sad period in the history of any free people, when 
the enlightened votaries of Religion shall withdraw all 
aid from secular affairs, and surrender them entirely to the 
care and keeping of those who make no profession of 
obedience to the sublime principles of Christianity. 

But, whilst we make full admission of this right and 
duty, we hold that they are to be exercised with more 
caution, and after greater deliberation, than is, perhaps, 
necessary in those who bear no official relations to any 
church. Rank and office, both in and out of the church, 
give weight and influence on all questions, secular and 
ecclesiastical, because they are supposed to have been 
conferred on superior intelligence and piety. Hence it 
is, that when new questions are started, and new combi- 
nations of party are founded on them, the utmost caution 
and deliberation are demanded from those filling high 
places, in order that superior station may not prove a 
curse, instead of a blessing to mankind. 

In the mutations of parties in this country, a new one 
has lately arisen ; to which, I apprehend, more of the 
Methodist ministers have attached themselves, at least 
in the State of Tennessee, than might have been expected 
from their known opinions on the various questions which 
have heretofore divided the former political parties of this 
country. If in this apprehension I have been mistaken, 
still I shall have done no harm in having addressed you. 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



This party, known as the Know-Nothings, is so peculiar 
in its organization, that it seems strange to me that any 
minister or professor of religion should be willing Ion 
to continue in it. It is for the purpose, mainly, of con- 
sidering this organization, and making an appeal to you, 
who may not have yet done so, to withdraw from it, that 
this letter is addressed to you. 

Know-Nothingism has an organization which we hold 
to be both unchristian and unlawful, and, therefore, when 
rightly understood, must be abandoned. 

1st. It is unchristian 5 because the numerous and horrid 
oaths which have been published to the world, and not 
yet authoritatively contradicted, have no scripture warrant 
for their administration. I go not back among the vows 
of the Old Testament, but stand on the clear and more 
explicit commands of our Saviour and his Apostles. In 
that great Sermon on the Mount, which alone is " proof 
supreme" of his divinity, he reviews and repeals all the 
laws of the old dispensation on the subject of oaths : 
" Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of 
old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shall per- 
form unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, 
swear not at all:" I, who gave the first law and can repeal 
it at my pleasure — 1 say unto you, "swear not at all: 
neither by Heaven, for it is God's throne ; nor by the 
Earth, for it is his foot stool ; nor by Jerusalem, lor it is 
the City of the Great King : neither shalt thou swear 
by thy head, for thou canst not make one hair white or 
black. But let your communication be yea, yea ; nay, 
nav : for whatsoever is more than those comeih of evil. " 
This is the direct and plain command — the last com- 
mand — of our Saviour himself There is no exception 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



to it made by him. Now, who can make one ? Dr. 
Clarke, commenting on this, says: " Much has been said 
in vindication of swearing in civil cases before a magis- 
trate, and much has been said against it. The best way 
is to have as little to do with oaths as possible. * * 
He that useth an oath, except what he is solemnly called 
by the magistrate to make, so far from being a Christian, 
does not deserve the reputation of either decency or com- 
mon sense. * * Swearing, in civil matters, has become 
so frequent, that the dread and obligation of an oath are 
utterly lost in it. 5 ' 

I recur now to the question, who can make an excep- 
tion to this absolute command of our Saviour ? Ho 
earthly power can do it, and no Christian government has 
ever attempted to do it. They invariably permit the in- 
dividual, if he have conscientious scruples founded on 
this divine command, simply to affirm, or solemnly assert, 
the truth of his statements. And so tender are govern- 
ments on this point, that they will not permit either an 
oath or affirmation to be taken but by some one lawfully 
appointed for that purpose. How, then, is it, that in the 
face of this command absolute of Jesus Christ — in the 
face of this command of civil society — any body can run 
about, and on the road side, in unfrequented cellars, or 
in the lone glens of the mountains, administer all sorts of 
oaths, to any and every body who may be thoughtless or 
wicked enough to take them ? 

But these oaths are unchristian, not only because thev 
are unauthorized by the laws ol God, but because they 
violate the laws of the land, which every Christian is 
bound to obey. 

There is no one to whom this letter is addressed who 



LETTER FROM EX-GOY. A. V. BROWN". 



may not, in the course of a single hour, in any law li- 
brary of the country, ascertain the truth and accuracy of 
this legal position. In Blackstone's Commentaries, in 
Jacob's and Tomlin's Law Dictionary, in 3d Coke's Insti- 
tutes, 165, 4th do, 278, and in Roll. Abr., 257, and in many 
other authorities, the doctrine is fully sustained, " that all 
oaths must be lawful, allowed by the common law or some 
statute ; if they are administered by persons in a private 
capacity, or not duly authorized, they are coram non 
judice, and void ; and those who administer them arc 
guilty of high contempt for doing it without a warrant 
of law, and are punishable by fine and imprisonment. " 

But those who administer these oaths, and who receive 
them, are violators of the law, (which no Christian pro- 
fessor ought knowingly to be,) and indictable for a con- 
spiracy. 

Take the oath that binds them never to vote for a 
naturalized foreigner, nor to appoint any Catholic, native 
or foreigner, to any office whatsoever, and to remove such 
from office whenever it can be constitutionally done! 
Now, what does this amount to but a conspiracy against 
the constitutional rights of two classes of American citi- 
zens % — a conspiracy to deprive them of their rights — to 
degrade them in the political, religious and social scale 
of society? In support of this position, so important in 
regulating the future action of every professor of religion 
who yet belongs to this order, I will here insert the au- 
thorities lately presented by the Hon. Jno. D. Freeman. 
a lawyer of eminence in the State of Mississippi : 

"This doctrine will no doubt startle many minds ; but 
now to the proof of the issue. It may he stated as the 
general rule that all confederacies wrongfully to prejudice 



g LETTER FROM EX-GO V. A. V. BROWN. 

another are misdemeanors at common law, and indictable 
accordingly, whether the intention is to injure his proper- 
ty, his person, or his character. The offence of con- 
spiracy is not confined to the prejudicing a particular 
individual ; it may be to injure public trade, to affect 
public health, or to violate public policy — to insult public 
justice, or to do any act in itself illegal. There are many 
cases in which the act would not be cognizable by law if 
done by a single person, which becomes the subject of 
indictment when effected by several with a joint design — 
Oth Term. R., 636. Thus, each person attending a 
theatre has a right to express his disapprobation of the 
piece acted, or a performer on the stage ; but if several 
previously agree to condemn a play, or hiss an actor, 
they will be guilty of a conspiracy — 2 Camp. 358. In 
the case of workmen refusing to proceed unless they 
receive an advance of wages, it is clear that any one of 
them might singly act on this determination ; but it is 
criminal when it follows from a plan preconcerted by 
many — 6 Term. R. 636. * * The gist of the offence 
of conspiracy consists in a confederacy to do an unlaw- 
ful act, and the offence is complete when the confederacy 
is made. (See Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. 
Hunt, Thacher's Cr. Cases, 609; 2 Mass. Rep. 337, 538 ; 
4 Wend. N. Y. Rep.; 2 Slew, Alabama Rep., 360; 4 
Hoisted, N. J. Rep., 293; 5 Har. & J. Va. Rep., 317. 
All who accede to a conspiracy after it is formed, and 
while it is in execution, and all who, with knowledge of 
the plans, concur in those originally formed, and in exe- 
cuting them, are fellow-conspirators — 4 Wend. N. Y. 
Rep., 259. It has already been shown that the constitu- 
tion of the National Council creates an illegal combina- 



LETTER FROM EX GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



\) 



tion of men for an illegal purpose — the object of which is 
to violate the public policy and to insult the public justice 
of the United States, and wrongfully to prejudice two 
classes of our citizens; and as such is clearly condemned 
by the foregoing law. '' 

There is yet another oath which I hold to be unchris- 
tian, and to which I invite your especial attention. It has 
been published in the public journals of the day, and is 
to be found in the now celebrated Blue Book, and has 
never, I believe, been authoritatively contradicted. It is 
in these words : 

" You do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty 
God and these witnesses, (after several other things,) that 
you will respond to the claim of a sign or the cry of the 
order, unless it be physically impossible. " 

Such is the oath. What now is the sign ? The same 
authority informs us, 

" That if the color of the paper be red, it will denote 
actual trouble ; which requires that you come prepared 
to meet it. '' 

How prepared to meet it ? How does any body pre- 
pare to meet danger ? With arms, of course. 

Such is the sign ; now what is the cry of the order, or 
the cry of distress, as used in different sentences, and 
which I understand as meaning the same thing? The 
same authorities say : 

" The cry of distress, to be used only in time of danger. 
or where the American interest requires an immediate 
assemblage of the brethren, is ' Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! ' The 
spouse is c Hio ! Ilio ! H-i-o ! ' " 

J\ow, if such be the oath, the sign and cry of the order, 
then what a complete and perfect system of armed 



10 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



organization do we behold, in a time of profound peace, 
and in the midst of the most civilized nation in the 
world ! Who has ever seen, or read, or heard of 
any thing to compare with it ? I know not whether 
such an organization has yet been carried out in ac- 
tual practice or not : that is not the question. The 
foundation has been laid for it; and, from the lawless- 
ness of the times, we may well apprehend that it may 
be, at no distant day. When it is, we shall be surrounded 
by it every day and everywhere — in the country as well 
as in the town. If we go to the muster field, to the court 
house, or to the election ground — places where duty and 
the law command us to so — lo ! this organization is there, 
with all its signs and tokens and oaths, requiring them to 
come prepared for any expected emergency. Barely to 
state the case, without a single comment, ought to be 
enough — enough to make every good citizen, and espe- 
cially every professor of religion, to come out of it in- 
stantly. I do not say enough to make every such person 
change his opinion as to the exclusion of Catholics from 
office, or the foreigners from voting until they have been 
here twenty years ; — these are different points, on which 
I am not now speaking ; — but enough, it seems to me, to 
make every law-abiding citizen, every professed follower 
of the meek and lowly Saviour, determine that such 
secret and armed organization, even to effect what they 
might think is a good object, is essentially and radically 
wrong. What Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist or other 
professor, does not know that it is an eternal law of his 
religion that the u end can never justify the means?'' No 
man can dare hope to see the face of his God in peace, 
who consents knowingly " to do wrong that even good 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWX. 



may come of it. » You do know that such an organiza- 
tion as these oaths and signs indicate is wrong — wrong, 
and forbidden by the laws of the land and the well-being 
of every civilized community. I repeat, that every pro- 
fessing Christian, of every religious denomination, know-; 
this part, at least, of Know-Nothingism is wrong in ev ; 
sense of the word. I, therefore, call upon them, this day, 
to come out of these lodges, and never to return to them ; 
at all events, never to return to them until all secrecy, all 
their bits of red paper, (indicating blood, even by the se- 
lection of color,) all their signs and signals, are utterly abo- 
lished and dispensed with. I call upon them to do this, 
and to do it forthwith — by their hopes of Heaven — by 
their obedience to the word of God — by their allegiance 
to the constitution and laws of their country — to come out 
from any party which has adopted a mode and plan of or- 
ganization so fatal to the peace of society and to the pro- 
gress of true religion. If I could but arrest the attention 
of the religious community to this great point in our 
subject, and prevail on them to abandon Know-Nothing- 
ism, until Know-Nothingism abandons its wicked and 
unlawful organization, I would willingly consent to bear 
all the slanders and abuse which bad men could heap 
upon me ! 

Let me, right here, propound a few questions to him 
"who ministers at the altar" — whether he be bishop, 
elder, or other dignitary in the church. How can you 
attach yourself to an order whose organization ( I 
speak not of its creed) commands you, whenever you are 
notified by red bits of paper, to rush to the scene of strife 
and mingle, it may be, in its carnage ? You are com- 
manded by your Heavenly Master to go forth into the 



12 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



world " shod with the preparation of the Gospel oi 
peace 5" but Know-Nothingism commands you to go forth 
with the preparation of the bowie-knife and the revol- 
ver! He commands you, too, "to take with you the 
helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit which is 
the word of God ; " but Know-Nothingism arms you with 
different weapons than these — with the sword of perse- 
cution and death! Away, away with these carnal wea- 
pons ! In His own emphatic language, " he that taketh 
the sword shall perish by the sword,' 1 — not individually 
and personally, but your usefulness in the ministry will 
die — your congregations will fall off and desert your 
churches ; and thus the cause of religion will be made to 
reel and stagger, for a time, under blows received from 
hands annointed to uphold and sustain it. 

Let me propound yet another question to all men, 
whether in the church or out of it — When this party, 
being secret and oath-bound, shall be once firmly estab- 
lished, must not, and will not, all other parties follow the 
fatal example ? When that is done, what will our coun- 
try become, but one vast camp of secretly armed people, 
ready to rush to combat on the dropping of a red piece 
of paper, or the shrill outcry of a preconcerted signal ? 
Then, indeed, that song, which now only serves to adorn 
the legends of a lawless age, in its bloody variations, may 
become our national anthem, sung by conflicting bands 
as they rush into battle: 

"The moon's on the lake, and the mist's on the brae, 
And our clan has a name that is nameless by day ; 
Our signal for fight, which from monarchs we drew, 
Must be heard but by night in its vengeful halloo ! 
— Whilst there's leaves on the forest, or foam on the river, 
McGregor, despite them, shall flourish for ever ! " 



LETTER FROM EX GOV. A. V. BROWN, j ;{ 

It is the province of the statesman to cast his vision 
beyond the present and to discover the far distant c 
quences of every departure irom the sound principles of 
human action. Let, therefore, no man charge mo with 
saying that it is now the design of the Know-Nothi] 
to change this nation of Christians into one of mere ban- 
dits, struggling for power. No : I speak of the evil ex- 
ample set to all other parties, and the almost inevitable 
consequences of that example being followed, which must 
solve in blood the great and last problem of human liberty.* 

Such, briefly enumerated, are some of the objections 
to the organization of this new order. I pass over such 
as are not peculiarly addressed to persons of that high 
and holy calling to which you have dedicated your- 
selves* It seems to me that they ought and must con- 
vince you, that your duty, as Christian ministers and mem- 
bers, demands that you should instantly withdraw all 
further sanction and approbation from such a secretly 
armed and oath-bound association. If you do not, you 
cannot fail to perceive that the deep foundations of 
social and religious order and confidence must soon 
be broken up. Your family relations will be dost roved : 
fathers and sons separated by secret obligations unknown 
to each other, will become estranged. Your churches 
will be severed in twain — one-half of their congregations 
refusing to sit under the ministration of one who. by oath, 
holds a secret brotherhood to the men of the world par- 
amount to the one which he feels to his brethren in the 
church. Your schools will be stripped of half their pa- 
tronage, and the whole moral, religious and intellectual 
nroo-ress of the age thrown back for more than half a 
century ! 

♦Columbia F[>eeeh. 



1 4 LETTER FROM EX-GO Y. A. V. BROWN. 

I know well the predominant motive which has 
prompted many of all the Protestant churches of this 
country to unite themselves with this new order. It was a 
thorough and settled opposition to some of the tenets of 
the Romish creed, and a deep abhorrence of certain 
alleged abuses and abominations that had grown up under 
it. But they ought to have remembered, that even a 
virtuous indignation can never justify proscription and 
persecution; these bring no remedy to the real or sup- 
posed evils, but are sure to increase and aggravate them. 
These errors in faith, and abominations in practice, if they 
really exist, were known to the Wesleys, and Cokes, and 
Asburys, who founded your church; to the Lees, the 
Bruces, the Capers, the Logan Douglasses, the Summer- 
fields, and the Bascoms, who subsequently extended and 
adorned it. But they never proposed to kindle, in this 
enlightened age of Christianity, the consuming fires of 
religious persecution. Persecution may inflict torture on 
the body, or it may bring degradation by exclusion from 
offices of honor or of trust, but it can shed no light and 
no conviction on the minds and consciences of mankind. 
The immortal and sainted founders of your church knew, 
and felt, and acted upon, these great truths. Mr. Jeffer- 
son acted upon them when he drafted the act establish- 
ing religious freedom in the State of Virginia. Oh ! if I 
could engrave that act — not its letters and its words, but 
its vital spirit — on the hearts of those I now address, and 
of my countrymen in general, I should hold myself as one 
of their greatest benefactors. When Mr. Jefferson died 
he desired that no eulogy should be engraved on his tomb, 
but that "Here lies Tho3i as Jefferson, antli or of the De- 
claration of Independence^ and of the act establishing 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



15 



Religious Freedom. " Hear but a small portion of that 
noble document: — ''That our civil rights have no depen- 
dence on our religious opinions, any more than our 
opinions of physics, or geometry ; that, therefore, the 
proscribing any citizens as unworthy of the public con- 
fidence, by laying upon them any incapacity of being 
called to offices of trust and emolument, unless they pro- 
fess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving 
them, injuriously, of those privileges and advantages to 
which, in common with their fellow-citizens, they have a 
natural right; that it tends only to corrupt the princi- 
ples of that religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, 
with a monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments, those 
who will externally profess and conform to it; that, 
though indeed those are criminals who do not withstand 
such temptation, yet neither are those inn6~cnt who lay 
the bait in their way. " 

These arc the words of Mr. Jefferson, but the immor- 
tal sentiment springs directly from the word of the living 
and true God. No: persecution at the stake, or by ex- 
clusion of Catholics from office, is not the weapon to be 
wielded by the Protestant churches for the putting down 
of the errors of Popery. Give to the earnest and im- 
petuous Methodist his bible ; give it to the steady and 
persevering Baptist ; give it to the accurately educated 
Presbyterian and Episcopalian ; put that mighty weapon 
only in the hands of all our Protestant denominations, 
and then give to all an open field for reason and argu- 
ment'; and, I believe, a true, vital and saving religion, 
will finally prevail over the world.* 

But the genius of sophistry may fly to the rescue of 
Know-Nothingism, by pretending that it is not on account 



*Gallat1n Speech. 



16 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



of his religion, that the Catholic is to be excluded from 
office, but because he is subjected, not merely to the spir- 
itual but to the temporal dominion or jurisdiction of the 
Pope. No error has been wider spread than this. All 
the writings of the old world, for centuries past, have been 
ransacked and republished; the random and unofficial 
editorials of Catholic newspapers, of more recent times, 
have been brought forward to sustain the charge that the 
Catholics of the United States are subject to the tem- 
poral authority of the Pope. Now, all this is wide of the 
mark. If he be a native-born Catholic, we know he is 
not. The Declaration of Independence absolved every 
possible obligation of that sort. The moment it was 
read and proclaimed from old Independence Hall in Phila- 
delphia, obedience in temporal matters, if it ever existed, 
ceased forever, as to every native-born son in America. 
It ceased, too, when the Constitution of the United States 
was ratified by Congress, and confirmed by the States. 
It ceased by the whole structure ol our government, and 
the establishment of our institutions under it. As to 
foreign-born Catholics, it ceased whenever they took the 
following oath of naturalization : 

" I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, and that I do absolutely and 
entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to 
any foreign prince, potentate, or state, or sovereignty 
whatever? Now, is not the Pope one of these foreign 
princes and potentates ? and does he not renounce and 
abjure, all allegiance and fidelity to him ? — not a part of 
it, but all allegiance whatever ? 

Beside this positive oath, look to the official declara- 
tions and instructions given by those in authority to the 



LETTER FROM EX GOV. A. V. BROWN, 



1 



I? 



Catholic churches of the United States. In the pastoral 
letter sent from the Council of Cincinnati in May of the 
present year, we have found the following delarations: 

" We appeal to you, brethren, whether these have not 
been the lessons which we have uniformly taught you, 
both in our public and official communications, and in 
our most private conversations; and whether we have 
not always instructed you that the power of the sovereign 
Pontiff, which is spiritual in its objects and in its sphere 
of action, cannot, by possibility, clash with your civil alle- 
giance or with the different classes of duties which you, 
as good citizens, owe to the government under which you 
happily live. You will bear us witness, without one dis- 
senting voice, diat such has been our invariable teaching 
on this subject, and that this has also been your invaria- 
bly belief" 

In a similar letter issued from the Council of Baltimore. 
in the same month, we find the same charge to tin- 
churches under their jurisdiction — "Beloved brethren, 
respect and obey the constituted authorieties ; for all au- 
thority is from God. To the General and State govern- 
ments you owe obedience to all that relates to the civil 
order. You know that we have uniformly taught y<>n, 
both publicly and privately, to perform all the duties of 
good citizens ; and that we have neve* exacted from you, 
as we ourselves have never made, to the highest eccl< i- 
astical authority, any engagements inconsistent with the 
duties we owe to the country and its laws. On ev< i 
opportune occasion we have avowed these principles, and 
even in our communications to tin; late pontiff, we rejected 
as a calumny, that in civil matters we were snbjcct :<> his 
authority." 



28 



18 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



In the pastoral letter issued by the Archbishop and 
Bishops of New York, in October, it is given in charge 
to their churches as follows : — u Your first duty is su- 
preme loyalty to God and to your own holy faith ; your 
second, subordinate, but in its own sphere equally su- 
preme, loyalty to your country in ali her vicissitudes of 
prosperity or adversity, if God shall so permit her to be 
tried; next to your country, in this secondary oider, 
your family, your kindred, your neighbors, your friends, 
and enemies, your countrymen and ail mankind. Be 
obedient to the laws." 

Now, I but it to the enlightened Christian sentiments 
of the age, whether in the face of their solemn oaths ab- 
juring ali civil allegiance to the Pope — in the face of the 
official teachings of that church to its members, to the 
same effect — in the face of the express provision of the 
Constitution, State and Federal, that no religious test 
shall ever be required — whether this exclusion of Cath- 
olics from all offices, ought any longer to be insisted upon ? 

A late distinguished Senator from Georgia, (Mr. 
Berrien,) in a recent address to the public, has copied a 
letter of Mr. Wesley, which may require a few observa- 
tions. That letter was dated in January, 1780. All its 
conclusions were founded on the assumed and popular 
opinion of that day, that the Pope did claim a civil juris- 
diction beyond his own dominions — tiiat he could absolve 
the subjects of other governments from their oaths of 
allegiance, and that there was a principle in one of the 
tenets of that church, that Catholics were justified in not 
keeping faith with heretics. Against these assumed and 
popular opinions, the Catholics of England, in that day, 
as they now do in this country, were solemnly protesting, 



LETTER FROM EX-GOY. A. V. BROWN. jg 

and ten years after the date of Mr. Wesley's letter, the 
British Minister, (Mr. Pitt,) instituted an investigation 
into the fact whether, according to the Catholic creed, 
its members were bound to acknowledge allegiance to the 
Pope as a temporal potentate. He applied to the six 
leading Catholic universities of Europe for information, 
and to this end he addressed to each one the follow- 
ing questions : 

" 1. Plas the Pope, or cardinals, or any body of men, or 
any individual of the Church of Rome, any civil authori- 
ty, power, jurisdiction, or pre-eminence whatsoever, with- 
in the realm of England ? 

"•2. Can the Pope, or cardinals, or any body of men, 
or any individual of the Church of Rome, absolve or 
dispense his Majesty's subjects, from their oath of 
allegiance, upon any pretext whatsoever ? 

" 3. Is there any principle in the tenets of the Catholic 
faith by which Catholics are justified in not keeping faith 
with heretics, or other persons differing from them in re- 
ligious opinions, in any transaction, either of a public or 
a private nature?" 

These questions were sent for answers to the Catholic- 
universities of Paris, of Douay, of Alcala, of Valladolid, 
and of Salamanca. These several universities were con- 
ducted by the most learned men of Europe, and they all 
responded with frankness and promptness to the qu 
tions. We have space only for the answer of one 
though we have them all before us, and state that thr 
answers of all are about the same To show what ll 
all answered, we select the response of the University of 
Paris, as follows : 



20 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



ABSTRACT FROM THE ANSWERS OP THE SACRED FACULTY OP. DIVINITY OP PARIS 

TO THE ABOVE QUERIES. 

After an introduction, according to the usual form of 
the university, they answer the first query by declaring — 

" Neither the Pope, nor the cardinals, nor any body of 
men, nor any other person of the Church of Rome, hath 
any civil authority, civil power, civil jurisdiction, or civil 
pre-eminence whatsoever, in any kingdom, and, conse- 
quently, none in the kingdom of England, by reason or 
virtue of any authority, power, jurisdiction, or pre-emi- 
nence bv divine institution inherent in, or granted, or by 
anv other means belonging to the Pope, or the Church of 
Rome. This doctrine the sacred faculty of divinity of 
Paris has always held, and upon every occasion main- 
tained, and upon every occasion has rigidly proscribed 
the contrary doctrines from her schools." 

Answer to the second query. " Neither the Pope, nor 
the cardinals, nor any body of men, nor any person of 
the Church of Rome, can, by virtue of the keys, absolve 
or release the subjects of the King of England from 
their oath of allegiance. " 

This and the first query are so intimately connected, 
that the answer of the first immediately and naturally 
applies to the second, &,c. 

Answer to the third query. " 'here is no tenet in the 
Catholic church by which Catholics are justified in not 
keeping faith with heretics, or those who differ from them 
in matters of religion. The tenet that it is lawful to 
break faith with heretics is so repugnant to common hon- 
esty and the opinion of Catholics, that there is nothing of 
which those who have defended the Catholic faith against 
Protestants have complained more heavily than the 



LETTER FROM EX-UOV. A. V. BBOWN. .> i 



malice and calumny of their adversaries in imputing this 
tenet to them, &,c, &,c, Sec. 

Ck Given at Paris, in the general assembly of the & 
borne, held on Thursday, the 11th day before the calei 
of March, 1789." (Signed in due form. 

The British mind was greatly relieved by these author- 
itative denials of the charge that Catholics owed alle- 
giance to the Pope. The way to Catholic emancipa 
was opened, and in due time an act of Parliament \ 
passed abrogating the cruel penal code, and giving i<> the 
Catholics the rights and privileges of subjects upon taking 
the oath of allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain. 
This oath was freely taken, and hundreds of thousands of 
Catholics have enjoyed the benefit of the act. It' it be 
true that Roman Catholics owe temporal allegiance t<> 
the Pope, then it follows that all those in Great Britain, 
as well as in the United States, who have taken the oaths 
prescribed in the two countries, are guilty of constant 
and perpetual perjury. 

This investigation swept away all the premises on whi 
Mr. Wesley wrote his letter ten years b .and 
authoritative disclaimer was hailed in every country with 
the highest satisfaction. 

Let me give you yet another reason, against this 
ecuton and invoke your most serious attention 
to it. Go stand with me on the eastern bani 
the Mississippi ; let your eve range now from the 
Gulf of Mexico, over the Floridas, over Lou 
Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Minn< tch 

your vision away over to Oregon and ( California, reposing 
on the distant shores of the Pacific Ocean. Here i^> 
more than half your free and happy country. Prom 



<><»> LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 

whom did you get it ? From Catholic France, Catholic 
Spain and Catholic Mexico. How did you get it 1 By 
solemn treaties — in every one of which you covenanted 
that the Catholic inhabitants of all that vast territory, 
should never be subject to any disability or prejudice, for 
or on account of their religion. The Louisiana treaty 
first contained this high guaranty. Thomas Jefferson 
put it there, and pledged not only his own honor, but that 
of his country, that it. should never be violated. The same 
clause was inserted in the Florida treaty, and in the Mex- 
ican treaty. Thus we became bound, by a triple cord 
of honor, not to do this evil thing to our Catholic breth- 
ren. What is a nation without honor ? What is a party 
without it? Such a breach of treaty obligation might 
be made under certain circumstances, a just cause of 
war by either France, Spain or Mexico; nay, all man- 
kind might regard us as a faithless people, unworthy of 
enlightened and christian association. 

1 have hut a single argument more, amongst the many 
which might be submitted to you, which 1 wish to 
present for consideration. I designedly omit all mere 
political or party views on this occasion, and only pre- 
sent such, as in my opinion, have relation to the clerical 
character you sustain, and the good of the church over 
which you preside. I do not regard this Know-Nothing 
movement as a party at all, springing up and contending 
for the adoption of a certain line of public policy, whilst 
it leaves the form and system of our republican govern- 
ment still the same. The Whig and the Democratic 
parties contended long as to the right policy of our gov- 
ernment in relation to a Bank, the Tariff, the Sub-Treas- 
ury, &c. , whilst both agreed that our form of govern- 



LETTER FROM EX GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



23 



meht was right — that its powers had been rightly dis- 
tributed between the Executive, Legislative and Judicial 
branch of the Federal and State Governments. But 
Know-Nothingisin proposes an entirely new government. 
Its organization is new; the distribution and location 
of its important powers are new. It consists of a national 
council, composed of seven delegates from each State, to 
be chosen annually by the ^tate Councils. It lias a presi- 
dent, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, and two Benti- 
nels, with their respective salaries. It has unlimited 
power to impose and collect taxes from individuals and 
subordinate Councils — to fix and establish all signs, grins 
and passwords — to decide all matters appertaining to 
national politics, and, finally, to adopt any and every 
measure it may deem necessary to secure the success of 
the order. The oaths of the respective degrees are too 
numerous to be here inserted ; but we must copy that of 
the second, as published and not yet authoritatively con- 
tradicted : " you, and each of you, of your own free will 
and accord, in the presence of Almighty Cod and tl: 
witnesses, do solemnly and sincerely swear, that you 
will support, in all political offices, members O) der 

in preference to other persons ; that, if it may he done 
legally, you will, when elected or appointed to any official 
station, conferring on you the power t;> do so. remove all 
foreigners, aliens, or Roman Catholics, from office or 
place, and that you will, in no case, appoint 
any place in your gift. You do also promise and sw< 
thatthis and all other obligations which you have previous- 
ly taken in this ord • hall ever be kept thr lifesaci 
and inviolate/' 

The obligation of the third degree, as published, is as 



24 LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 

follows: "You, and each of you, of your own free will 
&c., do further promise and swear, that you will vote for 
and support, for all political offices, third or Union de- 
gree members of this order in preference to all others, 
* * * So help you God, and keep you steadfast." 
Let us now copy a portion of the oath administered in 
the first degree, as it has lately been alleged to have been 
altered : " * * you do solemnly promise 

and swear, that you will, in all political matters. 
so far as this order is concerned, comply with the 
will of a majority though it may conflict with 
your personal preferences, so long as it does not conflict 
with the Constitution of the United States of America, or 
that of the State in which you reside, &,c. 5 ' 

These three oaths enable us, clearly, to perceive the 
great revolution now sought to be effected in our present 
form of government. All power is not to be in the people, 
but in the councils ; all officers are not to be filled by 
them at the open public ballot-box — each one expressing 
his choice in the open manliness of a freeman — but to be 
filled according to decision of a bare majority, expresssd 
in secret council. The President is to be so elected ; 
Congressmen, the Governors, and Legislatures, must come 
up out of the same conclaves : even the Judiciary — 
judges, magistrates, sheriffs, coroners, and clerks, arc to 
be created only by the votes of a bare majority, sitting in 
secret, and subject to no public responsibilities! Who 
does not see, that under this new organization, the whole 
form, spirit and substance of our government is to be 
revolutionized ? No man can be elected President 
without first entering through the door of Know-Nothing- 
ism, and no man, so entering and being elected, is at lib- 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



!>.-> 



erty to administer the affairs of this great government 
according to the dictates of his best judgment, under 
restrictions and directions of the constitution ofhis coun- 
try. If he wishes to appoint his cabinet — our !' 
ministers, our judges, our officers of the army revenues i 
the navy, the collectors of our representatives, and all the 
other necessary appointees, he can no longer be guided 
by Mr. Jefferson's rule, fa is he capable, and is he honest? " 
but must wait for the action of the National Council, and 
issue his commissions according to its high demands; for 
as a member of the order, he has solemnly sworn, in all 
political matters, to comply with the will of a majority, 
though it may conflict with his personal preferences. 

If no orders shall come from the National Council 
then he may proceed to make his appointments, not from 
the whole body of his fellow-citizens, but he is bound by 
his oath " to support, in all political offices, " the members 
of the Know-Nothing order. So, also, with regard to 
the measures he may think proper to recommend. I) 
his judgment incline to the purchase of Cuba ? The 
National Council, in session, unwilling to receive the 
Catholic inhabitants of the island into our Union, but 
under terms of degradation to which they would not 
submit, pronounces against the purchase ; and the Pr 
ident submissively registers its decrees ! 

The same observations might be submitted in relation 
to the members of Congress — their action on the great 
and vital questions of public policy which might come 
before them. What if a proposition be pending to rep 
the Fugitive Slave Law — the Kansas and Nebraska law 
— the rejection of a State asking admission into the 
Union, because its constitution may tolerate slavers ' 



26 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 



The National Council is sitting on the same high political 
questions, and by a slight majority — it may be by one — the 
decree is entered that all Know-Nothings, whether in 
Oonoress or out of Congress, must be in favor of all these 
measures, so fatal io the South, so destructive to the Con- 
stitution. 

I must not elaborate. This letter is already too long. 
I have said enough to show that we are now in the very 
midst of a revolution 5 that the great and essential prin- 
ciples of our government are now in the actual process 
of radical change — a change greater than that which 
was effected by the. American Revolution. I affirm 
that it would be better, far better, for our country, this 
day, to be under the British Crown, and subject to the 
laws of Parliament, under the checks and controls of 
Magna Charta, than that it should oe brought under the 
dominion of a secret junto, from which all orders are to 
be issued — out of which all officers, high and low, are to 
be selected, and by which all public laws are to be dictated 
and all punishments to be inflicted. These are my 
solemn convictions, when I regard Know-Nothingism as 
intended to be a permanent organization of our country. 
Many members of the order do not look upon it in this 
light. They have joined it rather with the expectation 
that it is intended as a mere temporary arrangemont, to 
last only until the alleged dangers of Popery shall have 
been passed, and some salutary changes in the naturali- 
zation laws shall have been effected. Alas, revolutions 
never go backward. Know-Nothingism is the work of 
disappointed politicians, who really have never seen any 
danger from the Catholics in the United States; they have 
only seized on the strong feelings of the Protestant 



LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. ^7 

Churches against those of the Romish, in order to accom 
plish their ambitious purposes in politics. As to the ' 
eigners; if they would this day covenant with them ue\ i r 
again to cast a Democratic vote, we should nevdr hear of 
another Council, State or National, being held in Ameri- 
ca. But will the Protestant Churches, their ministers 
and members, lend themselves, even as reluctant accesso- 
ries, to the schemes of political aggrandizement ? Will 
they stand by and permit, much less will they aid in 
working out, a great revolution in the popular principles 
of the freest and best government on earth? 

Can they, will they, consent to see such a government 
transformed into the condition of France, as described 
byLamartine? "The whole of France wasbut one vast 
sedition. Anarchy swayed the States; and, in order 
that it might be, as it were, self-governed, it had created 
its government in as many clubs as there were large 
municipalities in the kingdom. The dominant club was 
the Jacobins. This club was the centralization of 
anarchy. So soon as a powerful and high-pas- 
sioned will moves a nation, and their common im- 
pulse brings men together, individuality ceases, and 
the legal and illegal association organizes the public 
prejudices. Popular societies thus have their birth. 
This expression of public opinion, thus organized into a 
permanent association at all joints of the empire, ve 
an electric shock nothing could resist. A motion made 
in Paris was echoed from club to club, to the extremes! 
provinces. The same spark lighted at once the same 
passion in millions of souls. All the societies con 
ponded with the mother society, and with one another. 
The impulse was communicated and the response l< ll 



28 LETTER FROM EX-GOV. A. V. BROWN. 

every day. it was the government of factions enfolding 
in their nets the government of the law ; but the law was 
mute and invisible, whilst faction was erect and eloquent. 
It was the Rule of Fanaticism preceding the Reign of 
Terror ! " Thus was the Jacobin Club formed. And thus, 
let me add, the Know-Nothing lodges were organized. 

Will my countrymen, will the religious portion of my 
countrymen, ever consent to install in the very heart of 
the freest and happiest governine .t on earth a secret, 
oath-bound combination like this? Oh! if it were once 
done in revolutionary France, if it may yet be done in 
some down-trodden and oppressed monarchy of the old 
world, let it never be done in our free and happy Ameri- 
ca ! I have said before, and I linger with fondness over 
the conviction, that America is destined, under the provi- 
dence of God, to be the grand theatre of man's highest 
destiny on earth. Our Declaration of Independence, 
proclaiming the only true and just principles of human 
government, points to it : the war of the revolution, bap- 
tising those principles in blood, points to it: the passage 
of the great act of religious freedom points to it with 
prophetic assurance, that here in our own heaven-favored 
land, the glorious work is to be accomplished. Of the 
means by which that Providence will work, none will 
be so powerful and so honored, in my opinion, as the en- 
lightened, tolerant, and pious ministry of every Christian 
denomination. 

Most respectfully, your fellow-citizen, 

AARON V. BROWN. 



^w\i<jwi) $y.<u\A 



OF 



EX-GOV. AARON V. BROWN, 



AT THE 



ANNUAL AGRICULTURAL PAIR, 



iini.D AT 



JACKSON', WEST TENNE8SE] . 



OCTOBER C! 3 , 1 P 5 J . 



N A S II V I L L E : 

J. F. MORGAN, FIN'E JOB AND BOOK PBINTER, 58 COLI FOE FTRECT. 



185 5 



ADDRESS. 



Ladies akd Gentlemen: 

Iu the journey of life, we often encount. , 
incidents that afford us satisfaction; sometimes we meet with 
those that inspire us with the more positive sentiment of 
pleasure; but it rarely happens that enchanting scenes like 
those now before us, transport us at once to the very highest 
degree of exultation and delight. Cast your eyes for a 
moment over this vast and fine assembly. Health, intell^ 
gence and joy are beaming on every manly countenance, 
whilst loveliness and beauty shed the light of their presence 
and approbation on all that is transpiring around us. Your 
speaker, if he have the heart to appreciate, has no lan- 
guage to express the emotions which the occasion inspires. 
But, what is the occasion that has thus convened this 
vast concourse of our fellow-citizens, of every pursuit and 
of every faith in religious and social life? It is no acci- 
dental movement of our population for the accomplishment 
of some local or temporary purpose and then to pass away, 
never to be repeated. No. We are here not only with 
the sanction, but by the authority of law ; we are here in 
attendance on a duly constituted Agricultural and Mechan- 
ical College, endowed and established by the State, to im- 



( i ) 

prove and perfect us ia two of the noblest studies ever 
prosecuted by man — the sciences of Agricultural and the 
Mechanical Arts. 

The parent institution has been located at the seat of 
Government, in the centre of the State, whilst the greater 
and lesser branches have been thrown out into every por- 
tion of the commonwealth. This was intended by the Leg- 
islature of the State, as the rounding off and completion 
of that comprehensive system of education which, from 
time to time, it has built up and established for the educa- 
tion and improvement of the people. 

When it was first established, the wisest and most ardent 
of its friends doubted its success. The means seemed 
totally inadequate to the great ends to be attained. Time 
has demonstrated, however, that they underrated the indom- 
itable energy of our people, when once firmly resolved on 
the accomplishment of any beneficent object. The month 
of October, henceforward to be the most noted, most honored 
of all the months of the calendar, now exhibits the most tri- 
umphant vindication of the wisdom and utility of these An- 
nual Fairs and Exhibitions. In this month, more than one 
hundred thousand of our people have been in attendance 
upon them, witnessing and patronizing them with a zeal and 
earnestness that evince beyond cavil, that the system is now 
firmly established as a permanent policy of the State. What 
a sublime spectacle does Tennessee, (not to speak of other 
States,) during the present month, exhibit to the world I 
Her purely literary institutions, male and female, are lit- 
erally crowded to overflowing with young and ardent vota- 
ries of science. Our free and other common schools are 
dispensing the more limited, but yet essential advantages 
of education to the hundreds and thousands, who, a 
few years ago, were entirely unprovided for; whilst this 
Agricultural College, with its Annual Exhibitions, is stimula- 



( 5 ) 
ting to exertion and improvement almost ti. m 

of our vigorous and rapidly growing population ! In ill 
this, who does not hail the future greatni ss of Tenm s» e ? 
Who does not see the hand of a wise and overruling Prov- 
idence beckoning her onward to tin' vi r\ high* si d< Stiny 
among her sister States of the Union ! 

In this high career, the Western D is destined 

to be behind no other portion of th te. Ber soil, if 

not so deep and rich as thai of Middle Ten more 

quickening in its natur ■ and more easily the labor 

of the husbandman. Its climate, if n nd 

invigorating as thu of E3 a . Tenu . i that 

inviting softness and blandness which distinguish the Ital- 
ian States. Its facilities of internal commui Q aro 
already equal to thus..' of any other r igion, whilst her roads, 
now in rapid progress, will soon place her in the front rank 
of the most favored country on the globe. For a full con- 
firmation of what we are now saying in no spirit of exi - 
gerated eulogy, look yonder to that great Kiv r wh m - 
ing in from the South, pours itself along youi wh 
era boundary. Look now to the West, where the might i 
River of our Continent sweeps along your W< ■• rn boun- 
dary, almost enclosing you in the arms of an unbounded 
navigation and commerce. Great a uUuralfo 
ities, the generous rivalry of three great oiti< b is I xt. ad- 
ing to you artificial aid, unrivalled in the history of any 
country with which we have been acq lainted Mobile led 
the way and first tendered to you 3 to her nean I and 
more healthful port. New Orleans next Btn forth 
one of her arms to embrace you, whilst M< mphis, with a 
more affectionate, because a more kindred attachment, 
invites you to repose on her bosom, with all the rich 
treasures of your productions. Fortunate country I ha] 
people! wanting nothing to ensure unprecedented prosper 



( 6 ) 
ity but your own well directed skill and energy in the cul- 
tivation of the earth. 

I would have the people of the Western District of our 
State to dwell on no idle dreams of the future, but I invoke 
you and them to look only at the unfolding realities of the 
present. You are truly situated "at the lower end of the 
upper country and at the upper end of the lower one." 
Woo'd by both, your true interest demands that you should 
repel neither, but wisely profit by the evident tendency to 
concentrate upon your favored region, some great commer- 
cial city, whose necessities and purpose must be the ex- 
change and distribution of the amazing productions of each 
portion of our vast Continent. To such a city, all the 
productions of the upper country — its bread-stuffs of every 
kind — its live stock — its hemp and tobacco, and the thous- 
ands of other articles, must be sent in boats suited to the 
navigation of its streams. To it must be sent the sugar, 
the rice, the cotton, etc., of the lower region, for distribu- 
tion among the now ten or twelve States reposing on the 
upper waters of the Mississippi Valley. It will be a great 
city of exchange and distribution for nearly half our Conti- 
nent, and must, in less than half a century, rival any of 
the present great cities of the Union. Nay, it can be no 
great stretch of prophetic enthusiasm to say that it must 
rival any great interior city of the world, when the vast 
amount of foreign merchandize, intended for consumption 
in those States, shall be imported, not through Baltimore, 
Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, as they now are, but 
through the Mississippi, "that great inland sea of the 
West," direct to this city of exchange and distribution. 

Fortunately, thrice fortunately for you, there has already 
been located within your own borders, precisely such a 
great city as this — the city of Memphis, located on the 
most beautiful, as well as the last of that line of bluffs that 



( i ) 

are so difficult to account for in our geological history. 
The facility with which the commerce of the two great 
regions could here meet and be distributed in every din c- 
tion; the concentration of intelligence, commercial expe- 
rience and capital already there ; point not only to her as 
the place, but indicate that the mighty revolution in com- 
mercial exchange, which is obliged to take place at no very 
distant day, may even now be advantageously commenced. 
It is no departure from the purposes of this day's en- 
gagements to have presented this commercial view of your 
situation. The action of commerce on agriculture is too 
direct, nay, their interests are so intimate that the consider- 
ation of one is indispensible to the other. With such a 
magnificent city on your borders, what an amazing appre- 
ciation of every tillable acre of your land! What value 
would be conferred on every tree of the forest— on every 
quarry of stone— on every bed of marl ! What science 
and skill— what energy and industry would it evoke in the 
cultivation of the earth ! 

But, with all these advantages of position, soil, climate 
and intercommunication, the people of Western Tennessee 
must not fold their arms in idleness, nor give themselves 
up to inglorious ease. They have already done much. It 
is but little more than a quarter of a century since the 
beautiful country of which this city is now the centre was 
a vast uncultivated waste. Naught was heard but the 
scream of the panther, the howl of the wolf, or the war- 
hoop of the savage, to break the silence of the unbroken 
wilderness. But, even in that short period of time, how 
changed the scene ! The hardy pioneer has penetrated the 
country— the axe of the woodman has felled its forests. 
House and lawn and field and orchard have risen as by 
magic— towns and cities, churches and colleges, asylums 
and hospitals, all proclaim a prosperous and advanc 



(8) 

people ! If such has been your brief antecedent, what 
shall be your future history ? If you close not your eyes 
in slumber, nor fold your arms in idleness, that future must 
be bright — transcendent — glorious ! 

Your region of country was not originally settled, like 
many others, by a rude and uneducated people, slow to 
profit by the vehement and progressive spirit of the age. 
They came from polished communities ; themselves, often- 
times, the ornaments in literature and science of the coun- 
tries they had left. They came, too, not from the pressure 
of extreme poverty, but from a laudable desire to partici- 
pate in the blessings and advantages of that young and 
rising empire of the West, whose virgin soil, delicious cli- 
mate and majestic streams so invitingly wooed them to 
come. On their arrival, there was one peculiarity which 
distinguished their career. The men of wealth, education 
and refinement did not betake themselves to towns and 
cities, there to spend their time in elegance and ease, whilst 
they left the opening, and clumsy cultivation of their fields 
to their overseers and slaves. Here, more generally than 
anywhere else, they remained resident on their possessions, 
directing and often executing in person the whole process 
of building, clearing and cultivating their lands. Thus 
they learned both to love and to understand, to honor and 
to dignify, the science of agriculture. They sighed not, in 
moments of dreamy indolence, for the citron groves of 
India — the spicy fields of Arabia — nor the golden sands of 
the Sacramento. No, every hour addressed them to the 
practical duties of their vocation, and taught them the 
sublime lesson, that more real satisfaction was to be found 
in the patient and skillful cultivation of the earth, than 
California, though glittering with gold and sparkling with 
diamonds, could ever bestow. The sublime lesson ! But 
how seldom learned ! The warrior panting for glory — the 



( 9) 

statesman toiling for renown — the devotee of pleasure, 
ever chasing its delusive phantoms, has never known the 
more ennobling pleasure which the educated, well balanced 
and dignified farmer feels in pursuing the most ancient aud 
honorable profession ever followed by man. 

And such has been the sense of the great body of man- 
kind in all ages and all countries. Among the Greeks and 
Romans, not to go further back into the history of the 
human family, agriculture was deemed not only the most 
indispensable, but the most honorable of all employments. 
Their greatest generals and statesmen — their chief orators 
and poets, were real practical and hard working farmers. 

Cincinnatus hastened back to his plough so soon as he 
could subdue the enemies of his country. Cato, the cen- 
sor, sustained the reputation of being the best farmer of 
his age. The villas of Cicero and Hortensius, at Tusculum, 
attest their veneration and attachment to an occupation 
which the Georgics of Virgil have rendered immortal. 

Among the nations of modern times, the foremost in 
the science of agriculture is the land of our ancestors. 
" It is not the Phoenician opulence and luxury of her cities, 
neither of London, nor Liverpool, nor Birmingham, nor 
Manchester, which constitute the genuine title of her 
national pre-eminence. It is the academic beauty and 
fruitfulness of her country, adorned by the skill and tasto 
of the husbandman, and teeming with the riches which tho 
persuasive hand of rural labor wins from the prolific bosom 
of nature, that forms her pride and glory." In England, 
as it is in our own country, no sooner does the banker, tho 
merchant, or the trader succeed in amassing his fortune, 
than he seeks to become a former, lie seems anxious to 
escape from the artificial calling in which he has been pre- 
eminently successful, and to return with joy to the natural 
and more happy pursuit of agriculture. One of the great- 



( io ) 

est statesmen and orators that England ever produced, 
Edmund Burke, was, both practically and theoretically, a 
farmer. The same devotion to this pursuit, heartfelt and 
unconquerable, may be found among the most distinguished 
warriors and statesmen of the United States. Washington 
was passionately devoted to his Mount Vernon— Jefferson 
to his Monticello — Jackson to his Hermitage — Henry 
Clay to his Ashland ; and the great Carolinian never 
sighed so heavily as when compelled to leave his own pater- 
nal domains. Mr. Webster, too, in the midst of his highest 
professional and Senatorial fame, longed for the shades of 
Marshfield, where, surrounded by his herds and flocks, he 
might spend the evening of his days in the cultivation of 
the earth. 

These bright and eminent examples, in both ancient and 
modern times, ought to exempt agricultural pursuits from 
every association of inferiority in dignity and importance. 
The planter and farmer coming in from his fields, after 
having successfully tested some new improvement or dis- 
covery in his pursuit, should feel as proud a sentiment as 
the warrior returning triumphant from the battle-field, or 
the statesman retiring from the Senate chamber after 
having electrified a nation with his eloquence. And why 
should he yield anything to these in rank or dignity, either 
in public employment or the social circle ? He is as well 
educated as they, having drank as freely from the pure and 
sparkling fountains of learning and science. He is the 
proud lord of the soil, whose stubborn nature he has sub- 
dued and made subservient to his necessities and pleasures. 
Exempted from the petty jealousies and rivalry of other 
professions and pursuits, he opens the door of a wider hos- 
pitality and dispenses his bounty on a scale more extended 
and munificent. In the deep and almost hidden recesses 
of domestic and social life, a brighter smile and a more 



( u ) 

6heerful countenance shed their benignant light on him. 
If I were to search the world for the most sublime moral 
spectacle which its scenes and employments exhibit, I would 
find it in that planter and farmer who, after a day of toil, 
returns at even tide with soiled clothes and clumsy Bho 
and it may be, with hardened hands, to his domestic circle, 
finding in the midst of his own perplexities some kind 
word, some endearing look, some affectionate token of love, 
lor the partner of his cares, and for the children with which 
God has blessed them. What, in all the career of the sol- 
dier or statesman — what, in that of the merchant — of tho 
most eminent lawyer, physician, or divine, outshine in true 
sublimity such an example as this ! 

Such a man is a blessing to his family and his country. 
He rears his sons and his daughters to habits of industry 
and cheerfulness. He educates them to a happy combina- 
tion of the elegant and the useful. He lures them from 
the blandishments of the city by making their home tho 
happiest and to them the loveliest spot on earth. At that 
home there may be no magnificent edifice, no lofty col- 
umns, no gilded cornices, no costly furniture ; but there is 
the simple cottage — the humble looking homestead, planted 
around with its shade and its fruit trees — its shrubbery and 
flowers — there, too, is the gushing fountain or the ripling 
stream — the play-grounds of earlier life, all inviting and 
wooing his wife, his blooming daughters, and his brave and 
Hardy sons, not to sigh for the crowded city, but to stay 
and share with him the happiness and cheerfulness of such 

a home. 

Such a man I would have to be the type not only of the 
Western District farmer and planter, but that of the whole 
United States. In every State of our wide extended 
Union, the most laudable exertions arc now making to im- 
prove, dignify and to render more attractive the pursuit ot 



( 12 ) 

agriculture. The discoveries of science, the inventions of 
the mechanic arts, and above all, the wide extension of our 
territory, have given their impulse and are contributing 
their mighty aids, in the noble work. Were I to venture a 
single remark in apparent derogation of these exertions, it 
would be, that they look too frequently to the mere wealth 
which improved agriculture may confer. The vehement 
and absorbing passion of the age is for wealth. For this 
every ship of commerce ploughs the ocean, the lake and 
the river — for this the mechanic arts are putting forth 
their highest efforts — for this the wide-spreading farms are 
opening out on the rich alluvion of our rivers and bound- 
less prairies of the West. In this wild and passionate pur- 
suit of riches, nearly our whole population seem absorbed. 
Who now betakes himself to the abstruse and hidden walks 
of philosophy, which Socrates and Plato once trod ? Who 
devotes a whole life time, like Homer and Milton, in laying 
the sure foundation for the homage of posterity ? Who 
now, like Galileo and Kepler, walks forth amid the stars, 
for the sublime pleasure of contemplating the wonders of 
the celestial creation ? No. The rush is for the copy right 
— for the pounds, shillings and pence, of the first edition of 
some corrupting novel, or some other light and trivial pro- 
duction of modern literature ! 

Agriculture has higher aims and offers nobler rewards to 
her followers than the mere accumulation of inordinate 
wealth. It offers an abundant subsistence to the whole hu- 
man family. It was for this that the earth was created. That 
lordly monopoly which, in any country, abstracts so much 
of it as may be needed, from the great uses for which it 
was made, outrages the very first law which God impressed 
upon it, and commits the foulest and blackest treason 
against mankind. Not much less guilty is that state or 
government which, in the shape of onerous prices, imposes 



(13 ) 

unreasonable barriers to its distribution and cultivation. If 
states and governments seize upon the munimi : tide 
to the general domain lying within their bord< rs, thi 
but trustees, holding it for the use and benefit of I 
people, for whom a beneficent Creator originally ink 
it. In our own country, (whatever may be true ofothi i 
there can he no just complaint upon this subject lb r . 
landed system has long been established, thai 
door to every American citizen to become the owner oft] 
soil which he wishes to cultivate, [n many < . "with- 
out money and without price," he can selec! i y tho 
kind of soil which he choosi s, but the v< ry latitude which 
he desires to inhabit. This has given to ih • Ami rican for- 
mer higher inducements to become such, than are known 
to any other country. Here he holds an ind< I 
to the broad acres he cultivates, and would defi od it with 
his life against any bold invader of his rights. He moi 
proudly over his fields and surveys with satisfaction tho 
crops which are growing upon them, and the Q< nd 
herds that are feeding upon his pastures. He builds his 
neat cottage or his costly mansion, accon ircum- 
stances, from which, as from th le of 
baron, he can look defiance to all tho world! 

It is this boldness and independence of <-ii; n 
ing from the ownership of the soil that makes the citia 
farmer the safest and sun st defender of intry. And 

such have been the lessons taucht us by Am rican his ton'. 
The officers and soldiers of the Revolution v. re farm 
and the sons of fanners. Tiny waited not f 
moving ceremonies of military organization. 1 
many of them literally left their pi in the fun 

and hastened to "the tented field." with th 

ond war of independence, in 1812, and bo in the n a nt i 
with Mexico, in which our farmer ui red in 



( 14 ) 

every battle, subdued every province, and finally carried 
our Eagles to the very dome of the capitol. 

We have already said, that agriculture not only yields 
subsistence to its own votaries, but to the ivhole human 
family. She feeds the millions who are engaged in com- 
merce, and who, without her, could not spread a single sail 
nor drive a single keel through the pathless ocean. She 
supplies, too, millions who engage in the mechanic arts. 
Not a spindle can turn — not a loom can weave its fabric — 
not a steam engine can put forth its power — nor can the 
fleet messenger of the sky be despatched, without the per- 
mission of all-subsisting and all-controlling agriculture ! 

What a sublime mission, then, has agriculture ! It was 
sent to earth with man ,and for man, and must accompany 
and share his destiny. If man has and is still improving 
in government, in the arts and sciences, in moral and intel- 
lectual culture, agriculture must keep pace with him and 
minister abundantly to his increased wants and accumulated 
necessities. In rude ages, how to wield the axe or to swing 
the scythe — how to merely scratch and disfigure the earth 
with the plough — might be all that was necessary, certainly 
all that was practiced. But now, when men are not con- 
tent with the rude huts, the coarse clothing, the simple and 
homely fare of other times — now, when the costly dwelling, 
the extended lawn, the expensive equipage, the church and 
the school house, and the charity fund, all demand increas- 
ed income for expenditure — agriculture most invoke the aid 
of all the arts and sciences to sustain her in meeting with 
liberality the accumulating demands upon her. The farmer 
and planter must now become educated: if not in the col- 
lege, he must be educated out of the college. If he sweep 
not the whole range of knowledge, he must diligently study 
what more immediately appertains to agriculture. He 
must begin that study in the professorship of agriculture 



( 15 ) 
in our colleges and universities. If he have not such an 
oportunity, he must study the text books on agriculture in 
our academies or common schools. Our institutions ought 
not to remain a single year without furnishing such facili- 
ties for the rising generation. Those who are now grown 
and actually engaged in this noble calling will find immense 
advantage in subscribing for and reading the agricultural 
journals. Books, pamphlets, and journals are now every- 
where to be procured and are truly working wonders in the 
different States of the Union. They are daily shedding 
floods of light on agriculture and its kindred arts — upon a 
proper selection of seeds, their adaptation to particular 
soils, and the most approved mode of cultivating each par- 
ticular kind — the rotations of crops — the advantages of 
deep and other modes of ploughing — the preparation and 
application of fertilizing agents — on the best models for 
dwellings, barns, and other farm buildings — on draining, 
fencing and irrigation. From these can he learn the im- 
portant lesson how much the animal and vegetable king- 
doms are dependant on each other — that everything in 
nature, both animal and vegetable, must have its daily food, 
and that to supply the best food at the cheapest rate is the 
perfection of husbandry. 

But, to receive the full benefit of these agricultural pub- 
lications, they must not be glanced over and then east 
aside like the newspapers of the day ; no, they must be 
preserved — they must be recurred to — they must bo 
studied, at least the standard ones, as the scholar studi. - 
his Greek, his Latin, or his mathematics — as the lawyer 
pours over his Blackstone or his Coke : profoundly ami 
thoroughly studied. 

But it will never do to be content with being an edacafc 'i 
or well read farmer or planter. We must add praUocU expi ■ 
rience to our theoretical knowledge. For this purposo evety 



( io ) 

farmer or planter (if circumstances will .allow it,) ought to 
reside on his own farm — ought to inspect and direct every 
thing in proper person — ought to watch and observe the 
progress and result of every new experiment which he may 
be making and mark with discriminating accuracy all the 
results. In large establishments he may have his over- 
seer, his agents, his servants ; but these must be only min- 
isterial, whilst his own eye inspects and 'his own head 
directs everything attempted beyond the ordinary routino 
of every day transactions. The advantages of such per- 
sonal observation, in many respects, will soon become as 
obvious as gratifying to him. He will see and know that 
his servants are well fed, well clothed, well housed and pro- 
tected from unmerited punishment at the hands of a cruel 
or passionate superintendent. 

It may be asked, what good is to come from all this caro 
and toil to become eminent and successful in the science of 
agriculture ? If great wealth and grandeur and sumptuous 
living are not to be desired as their rewards, what good is 
to come of them ? What good, let me ask in return, can 
come from mere wealth, if not expended in deeds of piety 
and charity ? What good in the lofty dome or the fluted 
column of the palace ? What good in the blandishments 
and dissipation of even Asiatic luxuriance ? Let the his- 
tory of extinct nations — of decayed dynasties — of ruined 
families — the withered, blasted promise of individuals we 
have known, answer the fearful question. We recur, there- 
fore, to the question of the desponding, What good is there 
in ail this toil and labor? Why, they constitute the true no- 
bility of our manhood; by them man has accomplished all his 
great achievements since the day it was declared, " thou 
shalt live by the sweat of thy brow. 1 ' Toil and labor ! 
They, have built all the palaces and lordly buildings of the 
earth ; they have constructed the ships that plough the 



( 1" ) 

ocean, and the swift locomotive that bear.j your commerce 

from State to State ; they have stretched the wire and the 
cable and sent m 5 of fire around the globe. Tin 

are only a .'. the physical triumphs of toil and labor. 

In the intellectual and moral world, how grand, how noble, 
how sublime, their achievements ! Aided by these, 

" The high-born soul 
Disdains to rest her heaven-aspiring wiug 
Beneath its native quarry." 

Toil and labor! of the mind — of the hands — of the 
heart ! Toil and labor ! heaven's twin messengers to man — 
earth's greatest benefactors ! Say not they are evils : 'tis 
treason to Nature — 'tis impiety to God! 

It is by these that man must yet work out his glorious 
destiny in this probationary life. And has man no higher 
destiny here than he has yet attained? Must he mal 
no further progress in the science of government, in most 
of the great kingdoms of the earth? Is the tyrant's heel 
to be forever on his neck? Is he never to be released 
from the " oppressor's wrong and the proud man's con- 
tumely"? Then, why was he made at all? Is he 1 
tined to rise no higher in his moral and intelli ctual bein 
Is he forever to be, if not so ignorant as not to know the 
right, yet so vicious as still to pursue the wrong ? Is 
untutored savage to see no God but in clouds — do heaven 
but in the chase? Are the millions of Hindostan, and the 
degraded sons of Ham in the wilds id' Africa, forever to 
bow down to images which their own hands have created, 
and at last perish in the suffocation of an heathenish and 
barborous superstition? No! it cannot be. Man's face, 
ever turned upward to his destined heaven — his hearl ever 
swelling with celestial emotions— his eye ever ranging from 
star to star — from planet to planet, in the glorions arol 



(18) 

his native skies — all forbid and rebuke the impious thought. 
Upward ! upward ! is engraved upon his thoughts and his 
desires; and that "divinity which stirs within him" is ever 
prompting him to ascend to his lofty destination fast by 
the throne of Him who made him. 



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